diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 57a066a..afc2ffc 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -5,8 +5,9 @@ LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/sepal-contrib/se.plan"
 WORKDIR /usr/local/lib/seplan
 
 USER root
+# libjemalloc2: allocator for the runtime (see ENV block near the end).
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
-    nano curl neovim supervisor netcat-openbsd net-tools git \
+    nano curl neovim supervisor netcat-openbsd net-tools git libjemalloc2 \
     && apt-get clean \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
     && rm -rf /tmp/* \
@@ -28,6 +29,18 @@ RUN micromamba create -n seplan python=3.12 pip -c conda-forge -y && \
     micromamba clean --all --yes && \
     rm -rf ~/.cache/pip
 
+# Run under jemalloc so freed per-session memory returns to the OS. glibc/pymalloc
+# never release the arenas dented by per-session widget churn, so RSS ratchets to
+# the peak working set and stays there (the production OOM); jemalloc purges free
+# pages on a decay timer, so memory follows users back down.
+# NOTE: if the .so is missing, LD_PRELOAD is silently ignored and PYTHONMALLOC=malloc
+# is worse than stock — after any image change verify jemalloc is actually loaded:
+#   grep -c jemalloc /proc/<solara-python-pid>/maps   # >= 1
+# Placed after the build layers so image builds don't run under the preload.
+ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjemalloc.so.2 \
+    PYTHONMALLOC=malloc \
+    MALLOC_CONF=background_thread:true,dirty_decay_ms:1000,muzzy_decay_ms:1000
+
 EXPOSE 8765
 
 USER root