Minecraft Server sizing & resource guide
This guide lets you figure out how much RAM and CPU power your Minecraft server will likely need.
TL;DR - Standard RAM sizes for common scenarios
The following table contains some of the most common server scenarios if you just want to get a rough idea:
| Use case | RAM (est.) | CPUs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla, <6 players | ~4 GB | 1-3 Cores | Minimal plugin overhead |
| Plugin server, ~10 players | ~6–8 GB | 2-4 Cores | Bukkit/Paper plugins |
| Medium modpack, 2-10 players | ~8–12 GB | 3-6 Cores | More Mods = More Ram usage |
| Heavy modpack or many players | ~10–16 GB | 3-8 Cores | Some Modpacks might require even more ram depending on their optimization |
How Minecraft uses resources
Now that we've talked about some important info about general sizing, we'll try to elaborate a bit on the effects that different things a Minecraft server does in the background, have on resource requirements. This will help you better understand and decide what things are important for your current scenario.
RAM usage patterns
Minecraft servers fundamentally keep the games state in memory, so having adequate RAM prevents out-of-memory errors and lag spikes. Different workloads and server forks (we mean things like Forge, Paper, etc. here) will have different requirements for memory.
| Workload type | Description | Typical RAM behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla gameplay | basically no mods/plugins, standard world & server | RAM scales mainly with world size & players |
| Plugins | Bukkit/Paper/Spigot plugins | Each added plugin will need some extra memory |
| Modpacks | Forge/Fabric/NeoForge modpacks | Mods can use large amounts of memory per mod, the more mods, the more memory you will need |
| Large community | Many players, large/many worlds, lots of mobs/entities | Memory increases with each loaded entity, tick and world |
CPU resources
Unlike RAM, Minecraft's CPU usage does not scale linearly with players or mods. There are some key things to note here:
- Single-threaded performance is king for best tick speeds, so you want high clock speeds
- Additional cores help with background tasks, plugin tasks (like dynmap), async chunk loads and chunk generation, backups and networking
HypeServ’s infrastructure uses modern Ryzen 9 CPUs tuned for gaming workloads, giving you the best of both single-core speed and multi-core handling for other server tasks.
Putting it all together
Here’s a practical sizing reference combining RAM and CPU expectations:
| Use case | RAM (est.) | CPUs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla, <6 players | ~4 GB | 1-3 Cores | Minimal plugin overhead |
| Plugin server, ~10 players | ~6–8 GB | 2-4 Cores | Bukkit/Paper plugins |
| Medium modpack, 2-10 players | ~8–12 GB | 3-6 Cores | More Mods = More Ram usage |
| Heavy modpack or many players | ~10–16 GB | 3-8 Cores | Some Modpacks might require even more ram depending on their optimization |
Common pitfalls & how to avoid them
Allocating too little RAM
If allocated memory is too low for your world/mods, the JVM (Java Virtual Machine, basically what runs your Minecraft server) can’t store all the data it needs for the server to run. Typical error logs include:
[17:45:32] [Server thread/ERROR]: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
or:
[17:45:32] [Server thread/INFO]: Failed to load chunk […]
These mean the server hit its memory cap and couldn’t proceed with normal operation. This usually leads to a server-crash.
What you can do to avoid this: Increase RAM allocation so the server has enough heap space.
Allocating too little CPU
When your server can’t process ticks fast enough, your console will often show something like:
[17:50:12] [Server Watchdog/FATAL]: A single server tick took 60.00s
[17:50:12] [Server thread/WARN]: Can't keep up! Is the server overloaded?
Minecraft’s main tick loop (the part of the server that calculates everything happening like plants growing, redstone, light etc.) falls behind if CPU single-thread performance is inadequate or you don't have enough CPU resources.
What you can do to avoid this: Increase CPU cores
Summary
Jokes on you, this is not actually the summary! We've put it at the top so most people get to the important bits immediately.