From 242bfcf192ea60645af10cf9f963c0ff14b08223 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Ghenis Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:22:57 -0500 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Add system requirements section to README Documents memory requirements for household calculations (~500MB, 8GB min RAM) and microsimulation with CPS data (2-4GB, 16GB min RAM) based on empirical testing. Fixes #6429. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 --- README.md | 14 ++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index ab9f6ddf504..8bdf6bd5c81 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -7,3 +7,17 @@ PolicyEngine US is a microsimulation model of the US state and federal tax and benefit system. To install, run `pip install policyengine-us`. + +## System requirements + +PolicyEngine-US loads the full US tax-benefit system on import, which requires significant memory. Based on [empirical testing](https://gist.github.com/MaxGhenis/253efeb07f4bfa8b50af768accf73c9d): + +| Use case | RAM (minimum) | RAM (recommended) | Typical usage | +| --- | --- | --- | --- | +| Household calculations | 8 GB | 16 GB | ~500 MB | +| Microsimulation (CPS data) | 16 GB | 24-32 GB | 2-4 GB | + +Key details: +- Importing the package loads the tax-benefit system, using ~400 MB +- Memory scales linearly with multiple simultaneous simulations +- CPS dataset operations may spike memory during calculations From 47b7be9c0ac6806f67931b7816eae6c5add61286 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Ghenis Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:51:22 -0500 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Add changelog entry Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 --- changelog_entry.yaml | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff --git a/changelog_entry.yaml b/changelog_entry.yaml index e69de29bb2d..66c95097fb3 100644 --- a/changelog_entry.yaml +++ b/changelog_entry.yaml @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +- bump: patch + changes: + added: + - Add system requirements section to README documenting memory needs for household calculations and microsimulation.