Minecraft Server RAM Calculator
Pick your server type, how many players will be online at the same time and your view distance. You get a recommended RAM size and the monthly price of that much RAM at each host we compare.
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How much RAM does a Minecraft server need?
RAM holds the loaded world, the players and everything they do, plus the server software and any mods or plugins. Hosts sell plans by RAM, so it’s the first number to get right: too little causes lag spikes and crashes, while too much wastes money without making the server faster.
This table uses the same rule of thumb as the calculator, at the default view distance of 10:
| Players online | Vanilla | Paper / Spigot with plugins | Light modpack | Large modpack | Bedrock Dedicated Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 players | 3 GB | 5 GB | 4 GB | 6 GB | 1 GB |
| 10 players | 4 GB | 6 GB | 5 GB | 8 GB | 2 GB |
| 20 players | 6 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 10 GB | 3 GB |
| 30 players | 8 GB | 10 GB | 8 GB | 10 GB | 4 GB |
| 50 players | 10 GB | 12 GB | 10 GB | 12 GB | 6 GB |
| 100 players | 16 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB | 24 GB | 10 GB |
“Paper / Spigot with plugins” assumes 20 plugins. Rounded up to common plan sizes.
How the calculator works
- Start from the server type. A modern vanilla or Paper server needs about 2.5–3 GB for a handful of players. Light modpacks start at 4 GB and large 1.17+ modpacks at 6 GB. The official Bedrock server starts at 1 GB.
- Add players. About 1 GB for every 5 players above 5, up to 20 players. Beyond that, each extra GB covers about 10 more players, because the world and the server software are shared.
- Add plugins. About 1 GB per 10 plugins on Paper or Spigot. Heavy plugins (Dynmap, big economy or minigame plugins) use more.
- Adjust for view distance. Every chunk of view distance above 10 adds about 5%. Dropping to 8 or less saves about 10%.
- Round up to the next plan size hosts actually sell.
These rules follow the guidance hosts publish for their customers; for example, Shockbyte recommends 3 GB for 1.17+ vanilla or Paper plus 1 GB per 5 extra players and per 10 plugins, and 4–6 GB for modpacks. Your server may need more if players build huge redstone farms or explore far and wide.
Ways to use less RAM
- Run Paper or Purpur instead of vanilla. They handle the same players with less memory and CPU.
- Lower
view-distanceandsimulation-distanceto 6–8. Use the server.properties generator. - Pre-generate the world with a plugin such as Chunky, so new chunks aren’t generated while people play.
- Use Aikar’s flags so Java’s garbage collector doesn’t pause the server. Get them from the Aikar’s flags generator.
- Remove plugins and mods you don’t use.
RAM isn’t everything
Most lag on busy servers comes from the CPU, not RAM: Minecraft runs most of the world on one main thread, so a fast modern CPU matters more than an extra few gigabytes. When you compare hosts, check which CPU they use as well as the price per GB. Our host comparison lists the hardware each host publishes.