A scheduled task configured in Plesk fails with error: PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of X bytes exhausted (tried to allocate Y bytes)

Renan Poss Moreira

Updated January 13, 2026 19:10

Plesk for Linux kb: technical ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

Scheduled task fails with the following error:

PLESK_ERROR: PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of X bytes exhausted (tried to allocate Y bytes)

The same error is shown on panel.log with debug enabled
The scheduled task is created at Tools & Settings > Scheduled Tasks (Cron jobs) with Type Run a command. It should run PHP script and has no limits set with memory_limit directives:

CONFIG_TEXT: /usr/bin/env php "/var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/index.php" "option1=qq"

PHP memory limit is exceeded.

In case the scheduled task is using the root user identity

Log in to Plesk.
Go to Tools & Settings > Scheduled Tasks (Cron jobs) and select the affected task.
In the Command field, add the directive memory_limit with required value:

CONFIG_TEXT: /usr/bin/env php "/var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/index.php" "option1=qq" -d memory_limit=128M

In case the scheduled task is using the domain system user identity

Log into Plesk
Increase memory_limit value server-wide in Plesk > Tools & Settings > PHP Settings > click PHP version > edit php.ini