Syed, pga_aggregate_target is just a target , it is not a limit. Look for PGA Aggregate Target Advisory in *Oracle9i Database Performance Tuning Guide and Reference * On 12/13/05, The Human Fly <sjaffarhussain@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hello List, > > I was little confused about the settings of pga_aggregate_target > parameter. I was in a assumption that when we set this parameter to a > certain value, the usage of pga wont go beond this value. I have set > pga as 3gb to one of my business critical database. Recently, I have > found that max pga allocation was 4+ Gb.