How Much RAM Does a Palworld Server Need?
Pocketpair’s official figure is 16GB, yet most hosts sell 10GB plans. This guide explains why both can be right, what actually fills a Palworld server’s memory, and how to tell a memory leak from a server that is simply too small.
8GB is bootable, 16GB is the official recommendation for the machine, and 32GB+ is the official larger-server guidance.
A rented plan’s RAM is for the server itself, not the host’s operating system, so a 10GB to 16GB plan is not directly comparable with a whole-machine requirement.
Active bases, worker Pals, spawn density, dropped items, building clutter, players spread out across the map and long uptime all push memory use up.
Low server FPS and long server frame times point to CPU load. More RAM mainly helps world-state headroom and time-to-crash, not a slow main thread.
The short answer, and what the official 16GB figure actually means
Pocketpair’s official operating requirements for the dedicated server say 16GB memory is recommended, 32GB or more is recommended for larger servers, and 8GB is also bootable but increases the possibility of crashes due to out of memory. Read that as guidance for the whole machine running the server: operating system, background services and the Palworld server together.
That is where the confusion starts. A rented Palworld plan showing 10GB or 12GB is usually quoting the memory available to the game server itself, while the host runs the operating system separately. So a 10GB rented plan is below Pocketpair’s 16GB whole-machine figure, but it is still above the 8GB bootable floor. Those numbers are not measuring the same thing.
The practical takeaway is simple: 8GB is a minimum that may boot, 16GB is the safe official target, and 32GB+ is where larger or long-running servers belong. If you want the broader machine-versus-process view, our game server hardware requirements explained covers the same distinction across dedicated servers.
Why Palworld needs so much memory
The server is not only tracking who is connected. It is holding a busy, changing world in memory so it can simulate it and send consistent state to every player. That is why Palworld server RAM use is driven by world complexity, not just headcount.
| Grows with… | RAM | CPU | Disk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bases and placed structures | Yes | Partly | Partly |
| Worker Pals at each base | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wild Pal spawns (PalSpawnNumRate) | Partly | Yes | No |
| Players spread across the map | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dropped items using physics | Partly | Yes | No |
| Hours since the last restart | Yes | No | No |
| Rolling backups (bIsUseBackupSaveData) | No | No | Yes |
- Bases and structures: every active base adds structures, ownership data, inventories, crafting state and nearby world objects. This is mostly a memory bill, with some CPU cost for keeping it all updated.
- Working Pals: base Pals are not decorative. They need AI, task state, positions and interaction data. More workers raise both RAM use and main-thread CPU load.
- Spawns across loaded areas: wild Pals and other actors exist because parts of the map are active. When players spread out, the server has to keep more separate areas relevant at once, which increases memory, CPU work and network replication.
- Dropped items with physics: loose items that still use physics are live actors. They cost memory and CPU, and cluttered farming or raid aftermath makes that worse.
- Building clutter: more placed pieces means more persistent world state. Building caps do not just affect appearance; they cap how much long-term state the server must retain.
- Long uptime: even after the 1.0 fixes for crashes and memory leaks, long-running server processes can still creep upwards in RAM over time. More uptime means more chance for memory use to drift high enough to cause trouble.
- Mods: server-side mods add more to load and can introduce instability. That is not free memory-wise.
That is why slot count is a poor guide on its own. A world with light activity and short sessions can sit comfortably on less RAM than a server left running all day with several active bases, many workers and a lot of abandoned clutter.
Sizing by group type: a sensible starting point
A simple per-player formula does not work well for Palworld. Use world shape instead: how many bases exist, how busy they are, how far players spread out, and how long the server stays up between restarts.
| Group type | Sensible starting RAM | Why this start point makes sense | When to move up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short-lived test world or fresh private world | 8GB | It will boot, and it can be enough while the world is still light and sessions are short. | If RAM approaches the limit, or late-session rubber-banding and out-of-memory crashes start appearing. |
| Small invite-only dedicated server | 10GB | Common entry level above the bootable floor, with some headroom for normal base growth. | When several bases are active, workers stay busy, or you want longer uptime without relying on frequent restarts. |
| Established shared world | 12GB | Gives more room for spread-out exploration, more clutter and a server that stays up longer. | When you are trimming settings just to stay stable, or RAM climbs too close to the cap every session. |
| Always-on community world | 16GB | This aligns most closely with Pocketpair’s official recommendation once you remember that rented-plan RAM is usually server-only. | When the world is heavily built, uptime is long, or the RAM graph still fills between planned restarts. |
| Larger, heavily built or modded server | 32GB+ | This is Pocketpair’s own guidance for larger servers, where world state and long sessions stack up. | When 16GB still forces aggressive limits on bases, workers or uptime. |
The 10GB and 12GB rows follow the way hosts build their own Palworld plans (see the next section); the 8GB, 16GB and 32GB rows are Pocketpair’s figures. A quiet 32-slot server can need less memory than a smaller world packed with active bases, dropped items and long uptime. Co-op invite sessions are a different thing and hold 4 players; this guide is about the dedicated server, which takes up to 32.
Rented plan RAM versus Pocketpair’s figure
Most hosts start Palworld plans at about 10GB and add RAM as slots go up; a few start at 16GB; one sets no fixed RAM cap at all. That looks odd next to Pocketpair’s 16GB until you separate whole-machine guidance from what a single server is given.
| Host | RAM | How RAM scales | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indifferent Broccoli | Uncapped RAM | Plans are limited by player count, not memory; the server is given the RAM it needs, under a fair-use policy. 2-day free trial. | £7.51/mo ($9.99) |
| LOW.MS | 10GB RAM standard on 8 slots | Scales to 30GB. London. | £6.73/mo ($8.95) |
| DatHost | 16GB DDR5 | One plan, unlimited slots. London. | £12.45/mo ($16.56) |
| GTX Gaming (UK) | 10GB on 10 slots; 12GB on 16 slots; 16GB on 32 slots | RAM tied to slot count: £21.93/mo ($29.17) for 16 slots, £38.24/mo ($50.86) for 32. | £9.99/mo ($13.29) |
| Gaming Deluxe (UK) | 10GB included | Upgrades to 12, 14, 16, 20, 24 or 32GB on the order form. | £9.99/mo ($13.29) |
Conversion used: £1 = $1.33
The pattern is the important part. A 10GB or 12GB plan is below Pocketpair’s 16GB machine figure, but above the 8GB bootable floor, so it can be perfectly workable for a lighter world with managed uptime. If you expect several active bases, long sessions and no appetite for regular restarts, jumping straight to 16GB is easier to justify. For a wider side-by-side view, see our Palworld server hosting comparison.
Self-hosting: one PC playing and hosting at once is the awkward case
If you run the dedicated server on the same PC you also play on, that machine must hold the Palworld game client, the server process and Windows at the same time. Pocketpair’s 16GB recommendation is for the server machine on its own, so a single 16GB gaming PC doing both is tight even before world growth and uptime creep enter the picture.
Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit are both supported. Use an SSD: Pocketpair recommends faster storage and warns that low-performance storage may corrupt saved data. If you are hosting from home, the default network port is UDP 8211 and must be forwarded if players connect over the internet.
Pocketpair also publishes an official Docker image, but running it through Docker Desktop on Windows or macOS is not recommended because disk read and write speeds are limited, which raises save-corruption risk. If you need the full setup flow, our guide to hosting a Palworld 1.0 dedicated server covers the dedicated server side.
The settings that change the memory bill
The biggest levers are the ones that decide how much world state exists at once. For file names, syntax and where these settings live, see our PalWorldSettings.ini guide.
; Keys inside OptionSettings=(...) in PalWorldSettings.ini BaseCampMaxNum ; total bases across the server BaseCampMaxNumInGuild ; default 4, maximum 10 BaseCampWorkerMaxNum ; Pals per base, maximum 50 PalSpawnNumRate ; Pocketpair: impacts performance ServerReplicatePawnCullDistance ; Pal sync distance, 5000 to 15000 cm PhysicsActiveDropItemMaxNum ; dropped items allowed to use physics MaxBuildingLimitNum ; per-player building cap, 0 = unlimited bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers ; clear bases of guilds that stop playing AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers ; how long offline before that happens bIsUseBackupSaveData ; rolling backups: disk load, not RAM
- BaseCampMaxNum and BaseCampMaxNumInGuild: fewer bases means fewer structures, inventories and working areas the server must keep alive. This reduces memory use and some processing load. The trade-off is obvious: less room for separate settlements. You can tell it helped if late-session RAM growth slows and the server feels steadier in heavily built areas.
- BaseCampWorkerMaxNum: worker Pals add AI and task state. Reducing workers cuts main-thread CPU work as well as RAM use. The trade-off is slower automation and less busy bases. If server FPS improves around bases and RAM climbs more slowly through a session, the change was worthwhile.
- PalSpawnNumRate: more spawns means more actors to track, replicate and occasionally fight. Lowering it reduces memory pressure and CPU work. The trade-off is a less crowded world. Watch for fewer spikes while exploring and less steady RAM growth over time.
- ServerReplicatePawnCullDistance: this controls how far away Pals stay synchronised with players. Lower values mean fewer Pals kept in sync around each player, which saves replication work and bandwidth. The trade-off is that distant creatures stop updating or appear later. This is more useful when players roam far apart than when your pain point is base clutter.
- PhysicsActiveDropItemMaxNum: a high cap allows more loose items to remain active with physics. Lowering it trims both RAM and CPU waste from item clutter. The trade-off is fewer physically active drops hanging around.
- MaxBuildingLimitNum: if it is left at 0, building is unlimited. A building cap is a long-term memory control, because it limits how much persistent structure data accumulates in the world. The trade-off is less freedom for large construction projects.
- bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers and AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers: this is one of the cleanest ways to stop abandoned worlds from bloating. Removing structures and base Pals from guilds that do not return cuts dead weight from both the save and the running world. The trade-off is that inactive groups lose their bases after the threshold passes.
- bIsUseBackupSaveData: backups do not reduce RAM use. They increase disk load by keeping 5 saves per 30 sec, 6 per 10 min, 12 per hour and 7 per day. Keep them, because they are how you recover a broken world, but do not treat them as a memory fix.
# Launch arguments often copied from older guides -useperfthreads -NoAsyncLoadingThread -UseMultithreadForDS # In v1.0 and later, leaving these unset may improve performance.
Those launch flags are worth a second look because many older Palworld guides still tell people to add them automatically. Pocketpair’s note for v1.0 and later is that leaving them unset may improve performance, so do not assume more flags means a better server.
If you plan to run server-side mods, remember they only work on the Windows edition of the dedicated server and may cause save-data corruption or crashes. Mods also increase what the server has to load, so treat them as part of the memory budget; our guide to installing UE4SS mods on a Palworld server covers the server-side basics.
Memory leak, too little RAM, or CPU load: how to tell
Palworld 1.0 fixed crashes and memory leaks on dedicated servers, but long-running processes can still creep upward in RAM. The key is to separate three different problems: a server that legitimately needs more memory, a server that leaks or creeps over time, and a server that is CPU-bound.
Watch RAM in your host panel or operating system, because /metrics does not report memory. It does report serverfps, serverframetime, currentplayernum, maxplayernum, uptime, basecampnum and days. That lets you compare RAM behaviour against server frame time: if RAM is near the limit but server FPS is otherwise fine until the crash, think memory; if server FPS is low and frame time is long while RAM still has room, think CPU.
| Symptom | Likely cause | First fix |
|---|---|---|
| Server is fine after a reboot, then RAM climbs with uptime until rubber-banding, slow chest access and a crash | Memory leak or long-session memory creep | Schedule restarts every 3–6 hours, save before restart, and use bEnableInvaderEnemy=False as a common settings-level mitigation. |
| RAM reaches the plan limit quickly whenever normal activity starts, even on a fresh uptime cycle | Undersized RAM for the world state you are keeping | Reduce bases, workers, spawns or clutter; if you want to keep that world shape, move up a RAM tier. |
Low serverfps and long serverframetime while RAM still has headroom |
CPU bottleneck | Lower CPU-heavy settings such as workers and spawns, reduce spread-out active areas, or move to a stronger CPU plan. More RAM will not fix it. |
| Save stalls or hitching around backups, especially on local hosting | Disk bottleneck | Use faster SSD storage and treat backup load as a storage issue, not a RAM issue. |
For controlled restarts, warn players and save first:
/Save /Shutdown [Seconds] [MessageText]
If you want a broader crash triage checklist, including memory creep and connection errors, see our Palworld crash and memory leak fixes.
Tune it first or upgrade the RAM?
The right answer depends on what is actually consuming resources. If the world is simply bigger and busier than the current plan can hold, more RAM is sensible. If the process only falls over after long uptime, scheduled restarts are often the more direct fix.
| Situation | Tune first | Upgrade when | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh or lightly built world on an entry plan | Leave it alone and watch the RAM graph over normal play | Only if RAM repeatedly runs close to the limit | Do not buy headroom you are not using. |
| Crashes only after several hours, then runs well again after restart | Automate restarts every 3–6 hours; save first | If the restart interval becomes too short for your group | More RAM mainly extends time-to-crash when uptime creep is the driver. |
| Many active bases, lots of workers, plenty of building and you want to keep it | Trim only the noisiest settings if needed | Move from 10GB or 12GB to 16GB, or from 16GB to 32GB+ | This is legitimate world-state demand, not just a leak. |
| Low server FPS, long frame time, RAM not full | Reduce CPU-heavy activity and review launch flags | Choose a stronger CPU environment, not just more RAM | The bottleneck is processing, not memory capacity. |
| Self-hosting on the same PC you play on | Separate the server from the gaming PC if possible | If the client, server and Windows are competing for the same machine | The whole-system memory picture is tighter than a rented server-only plan. |
If your server is new and uptime is short, a 10GB or 12GB plan can be enough. If you want a long-running community world with several active bases, 16GB is the safer starting point, and larger or heavily built servers belong in 32GB+ territory.
Compare Palworld server hostsPalworld server FAQ
How much RAM does a Palworld server need?
The official baseline is 8GB as a bootable floor, 16GB recommended for the machine running the server, and 32GB or more for larger servers. In rented hosting, 10GB to 16GB plans are common because that figure usually applies to the server process rather than the host operating system. The real answer depends on world state and uptime, not just slots.
Is 8GB enough for a Palworld server?
It is enough to boot, but Pocketpair explicitly says it increases the possibility of server crashes due to out of memory. Treat 8GB as a floor for a light, short-lived world or for testing. If the server is meant to stay up, or bases and workers will accumulate, move above it.
Is 10GB or 12GB enough for a Palworld server?
Often, yes, for a smaller dedicated world with sensible uptime and not too much accumulated world state. These plans sit above the 8GB floor and are common on rented hosting. They stop being comfortable when several active bases, busy workers, spread-out exploration and long uptime all stack together.
Does more RAM fix the Palworld memory leak?
No. More RAM only gives a leaking or creeping process more room before it hits the wall. If the pattern is “runs well, then degrades after hours”, scheduled restarts every 3–6 hours are the direct fix, with settings changes such as bEnableInvaderEnemy=False used as mitigation.
How much RAM per player does a Palworld server use?
There is no official per-player figure, and a simple per-player rule is misleading for this game. RAM is driven more by bases, worker Pals, spawns, dropped items, building clutter, how far apart players are, and how long the server has been up. That is why slot count alone is a poor sizing tool.
More Palworld server help
Fix crashes and memory creep, tune the settings that cost memory, or compare hosts by the RAM they give you.
Requirements, setting names and the /metrics fields come from Pocketpair’s Palworld server documentation for version 1.0.4; plan RAM and prices come from each host’s Palworld page as of November 2026. Host panels label settings differently, so follow your host’s current layout where it differs.
