While profiling our application I came across a a rather strange memory usage by the ob_start() function. We do use ob_start() quite a bit to defer output of data, which is a common thing in many applications. What was unusual is that 16 calls to ob_start() up chewing through almost 700kb of memory, given that the data being buffered rarely exceeds 1-2kb, this was quite unusual. I started looking at the C code of the ob_start() function and found this interesting bit of code inside php_start_ob_buffer() initial_size = 40*1024; block_size = 10*1024; Which directs PHP to pre-allocate 40kb of data for each ob_start() call and when this proves to be insufficient, increase by 10kb each time. Ouch! PHP does allow you to say how much memory ob_start() can use, via 2nd parameter to the function. However, if you exceed that size, PHP will promptly flush the captured data to screen, which means that unless you are really good at predicting your buffer sizes or vastly overestimate, there is a risk that...