One thing to note is that macOS uses the idea that “memory not being used is memory wasted.” So the OS will do a lot of caching behind your back to improve performance.
Open Activity Monitor and look at the Memory tab. Mine is open right now and the only application open in the foreground is Safari. My machine is an M2 Max Mac Studio with 64 GB RAM, and it says “memory used: 23.6 GB.”
Wow! Seems excessive!
But when I look at the “Memory Pressure,” it’s very low and green. That means that all is well, there’s no issue with memory needs.
So always look at Memory Pressure on a Mac.