Minecraft Server RAM Calculator
Pick what you are running and how many people play at once, and this gives you three sizes: the minimum that boots, the size to buy, and the size with room to grow. Modpack numbers come from the memory those packs use on servers hosted here, measured over the last 30 days.
Your server
The game as Mojang ships it.
The most people online together, not how many have ever joined.
view-distance in server.properties. Default 10. Each player holds 441 chunk columns at this setting, the default.
It boots and it plays, with little room for growth or a crowd.
Start a trial at 2 GBThe size to buy for the setup on the left.
Start a trial at 2 GBRoom for a bigger world, more mods and player spikes.
Start a trial at 4 GBWhy 2 GB
2 GB for 2 to 4 players on a plain Minecraft server, measured on servers hosted here over the last 30 days.
- Typical memory with players online: 4.4 GB, peaking at 23.2 GB
- Typical memory with nobody online: 1.3 GB
- What those owners bought: 4 GB (what they chose, not what the pack needs)
The trial gives 4 GB, or 8 GB for a modpack, free for 7 days with no card. That covers the 2 GB above. The free tier is a 2 GB server that sleeps when it is empty.
Prices are the base server slot at $2.50 a month with 1 GB and 30 GB of storage, plus $1 a month for each extra gigabyte. A year costs ten months.
How RAM works on a Minecraft server
A Minecraft server is one Java process. The size you buy is the memory cap on the container it runs in, and everything the process touches has to fit under that cap: the Java heap, plus the memory the JVM itself needs. The heap is where the world, the loaded chunks, the entities, the plugins and the mod data live, and it is the number the server reports when you ask it how much memory it is using.
The heap is always set below the cap. Here it is the purchased size minus a reserve of 384 MB up to 3 GB, and an eighth of the size above that, capped at 2 GB. That reserve is not waste: it holds class metadata, garbage collector structures, thread stacks, the direct byte buffers used for network and chunk IO, and the monitoring agent. Setting the heap to the full cap is how a server ends up killed by the kernel at the cap instead of reporting an out-of-memory error, which is a much harder failure to read in a log.
| Server size | Java heap | Reserve outside the heap | Price a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | 1,664 MB | 384 MB | $3.50 |
| 4 GB | 3,584 MB | 512 MB | $5.50 |
| 6 GB | 5,376 MB | 768 MB | $7.50 |
| 8 GB | 7,168 MB | 1,024 MB | $9.50 |
| 12 GB | 10,752 MB | 1,536 MB | $13.50 |
| 16 GB | 14,336 MB | 2,048 MB | $17.50 |
What actually uses the memory
Four things, in roughly this order. The mods or plugins: a modpack loads its whole registry of blocks, items, recipes and world generation at boot, and that cost is paid once whether one player is online or twenty. Loaded chunks: every player holds a square of chunks around them, and that square grows with the square of the view distance, so 441 columns at view distance 10 becomes 1,089 at 16. Entities: mob farms, item drops and dropped inventories on a long-running world. Players: the smallest of the four, which is why the sizes on this page step by player bucket rather than per head.
This is also why the same pack needs different sizes on two servers. A world that has been explored for a year with a dozen quarry chunkloaders running holds far more than a fresh one, and a server with view distance 16 holds 2.5 times the chunks of the same server at 10. Both are worth checking before buying memory: the server.properties generator has the view distance and simulation distance settings side by side.
Why more RAM is not always better
Past what the server needs, extra heap changes what garbage collection costs, not what the server can do. A tick runs on one thread and is limited by the CPU, so a bigger heap never raises TPS on its own. What it does change is how much the collector has to walk when it runs. With a modern collector and a tuned set of flags that is mostly invisible, but the older modded packs are the exception.
Minecraft 1.7.10 and 1.12.2 packs run on Java 8, where a full collection is a stop-the-world pause over the whole live set. On a heap far larger than the pack needs, those pauses get longer, and players feel them as a freeze rather than as low TPS. Handing an old Forge pack 16 GB when it is happy on 8 buys longer pauses and hides a leaking mod instead of surfacing it. There is a second trap in the same place: a huge pack's memory outside the heap grows with the mod count, not with the heap, so a pack that keeps getting killed at the cap is often fixed by lowering the heap inside the same size, which leaves a bigger reserve. If a server is stuttering, read a profile before buying memory.
Typical sizes by setup
Every row below is the calculator above with those inputs, at the default view distance of 10.
| Setup | RAM | A month | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla, you and a few friends | 2 GB | $3.50 | $35 |
| Paper with a handful of plugins, up to 10 players | 3 GB | $4.50 | $45 |
| Paper with plugins and Bedrock crossplay, 20 players | 5 GB | $6.50 | $65 |
| Light modpack under 60 mods, 2 to 4 players | 4 GB | $5.50 | $55 |
| Medium modpack of 60 to 150 mods, 2 to 4 players | 6 GB | $7.50 | $75 |
| Heavy modpack of 150 to 250 mods, 5 to 10 players | 10 GB | $11.50 | $115 |
| Very heavy modpack over 250 mods, 5 to 10 players | 12 GB | $13.50 | $135 |
The slot is $2.50 a month with 1 GB and 30 GB of storage; each extra gigabyte is $1 a month. A year costs ten months.
Where the numbers come from
For a pack with enough servers running here, the class comes from what those servers use with players online, sampled over 30 days and grouped by how many players were on at the time. The calculator shows that figure next to its recommendation, along with the median size those owners bought, which is a different thing: it says what they chose, not what the pack needs. Two servers on one pack sit on 8 GB and use under 2.
For a pack without that evidence, the class comes from the pack it belongs to and from the size below which we refuse to install it at all (8 GB or 12 GB for the packs that have one, because they run out of memory under it). For a pack you type in yourself, the mod count picks the class: under 60 is light, under 150 medium, under 250 heavy, and above that very heavy. The gigabytes for each class are the same table the modpack pages use.
FAQ
How much RAM does a Minecraft server need?
A plain Minecraft server for you and a few friends runs on 2 GB, which is $3.50 a month here. Paper with plugins and 10 to 25 players wants 3 to 4 GB. A modpack starts at 4 GB for a small one and goes to 8 GB and beyond for the kitchen-sink packs. The calculator above puts your own numbers through the same rules the modpack pages use.
How much RAM per player?
Memory does not scale per player the way people expect. The world, the entities and the mod data are loaded once for everyone, and a player adds the chunks they keep loaded around themselves, which at the default view distance of 10 is 441 chunk columns. That is why the sizes here step by player bucket, not per head: going from 4 players to 10 on the same setup is usually one or two gigabytes, not ten.
Is 2 GB enough for a Minecraft server?
For vanilla or Paper with a handful of plugins, yes: 2 GB covers up to about 10 players, and it is the size of the free tier here. It is not enough for a modpack. A 2 GB server runs a 1,664 MB heap, and a modded server spends a large part of its memory outside the heap on class metadata, so a pack on 2 GB is killed at the memory cap before it finishes loading.
How much RAM does a modded server need?
It depends on the pack, not on the mod count alone, which is why the calculator reads the measurement first. On servers hosted here, the heavier packs sit on 8 to 12 GB allocated and use 6 to 8 GB with players online. Small Fabric packs under 60 mods run at 4 GB. The packs we refuse to install below a set size are pinned at 8 GB and 12 GB, because they run out of memory under it.
Does more RAM fix lag or raise TPS?
Usually not. A tick runs on one thread and is limited by the CPU: worldgen, mob AI and redstone. If the server is at 20 TPS but stutters every few seconds, that is garbage collection and more heap can help. If TPS is low and steady, the tick is the problem and extra memory changes nothing. Check the timings or a spark profile before buying RAM.
What is the difference between the RAM I buy and the heap?
The size you buy is the container's memory cap. The Java heap (-Xmx) has to be smaller, because the same cap also holds class metadata, garbage collector structures, thread stacks and network buffers. Here the heap is the purchased size minus a reserve: 384 MB up to 3 GB, and an eighth of the size above that, capped at 2 GB. An 8 GB server therefore runs a 7,168 MB heap with 1,024 MB left outside it.
Why does a big modpack get killed even though the heap looks half empty?
Because it ran out of the memory outside the heap. A 500-mod Forge pack loads tens of thousands of classes into metaspace, and the mixin machinery, the GC structures and the thread stacks add to that. When the total crosses the container cap the kernel kills the process, which looks nothing like a Java out-of-memory error in the log. The fix is either more RAM or a smaller heap inside the same size, which leaves a bigger reserve.
Does view distance change how much RAM I need?
Yes, and it is the setting with the biggest effect after the pack itself. Loaded chunks grow with the square of the view distance: at 10 a player holds 441 chunk columns, at 16 it is 1,089, which is 2.5 times as many. Dropping view distance from 16 to 10 frees more memory on a busy server than most plugin changes. Simulation distance can stay lower than view distance; it controls what ticks, not what is sent.
Do Bedrock players on Geyser need more RAM?
Geyser and Floodgate run inside the Java server and translate every Bedrock packet, holding a session and a chunk cache per Bedrock player. Budget about a gigabyte on top of the Java sizing, which is what the Bedrock option in the calculator adds. It is a plugin, so it needs Paper or a Paper-compatible server; a Forge or NeoForge modpack cannot take Bedrock players this way.
Can I add RAM later without losing my world?
Yes. RAM is an addon on the same subscription, so raising it is a couple of clicks and a restart, with no reinstall, no migration and no change to the world or the address. That is the reason to start at the recommended size rather than the largest one: you can move up the moment the server needs it.
What does RAM cost here?
The server slot is $2.50 a month and includes 1 GB of RAM and 30 GB of storage. Every extra gigabyte is $1 a month, so 4 GB is $5.50 and 8 GB is $9.50. A year costs ten months, so the same sizes are $55 and $95 a year. The 7-day trial gives 4 GB, or 8 GB for a modpack, with no card, and the free tier is a 2 GB server that sleeps when it is empty.
Where do the numbers in this calculator come from?
Three places. The memory servers here actually use, sampled over 30 days and grouped by how many players were online, which is what the "measured on servers hosted here" line reports. The per-pack sizes below which we do not install a pack at all. And, for anything with no measurement, the same weight-class table the modpack pages use, picked from the pack or the mod count.
Related tools
- server.properties generator : view distance, simulation distance and the rest of the file.
- Server status checker : ping a running server for its player count, version and latency.
- Region finder : find the region file behind a coordinate when a world has grown too big.