Squad Server Requirements: RAM, CPU and Player Slots

1. Decide first: licensed server or custom server

The biggest decision in Squad server requirements is not the RAM figure. It is where the server is meant to appear. A licensed server appears in the primary Server Browser tab, so Offworld’s licence policy becomes the non-negotiable baseline. A custom or unlicensed server appears under Custom Servers, which removes the formal hardware floor but also removes the main-browser visibility.

That means two communities can have very different requirements even if they are both “running Squad”. A public 100-player licensed community server must be sized around Offworld’s policy and green TPS. A private training server, a small custom event server or a mod test box can run with much lighter settings, lower slot counts and cheaper RAM allocations.

There is no current 80-slot minimum in policy. That does not make player count irrelevant; it means the real limiter is performance. For licensed servers, Offworld can request upgrades, reduce the player limit or revoke the licence if performance drops badly. Communities can apply for up to 4 licences, must address report violations within 7 days, and should treat those operational rules as part of the total requirement, not admin paperwork bolted on afterwards.

2. TPS is the yardstick that tells you if the hardware is actually enough

TPS means ticks per second: how often the server completes its simulation loop. That loop updates player state, shots, vehicles, movement, damage, replication and all the other server-side decisions that players assume are happening instantly. If the server cannot finish enough ticks on time, the game does not simply “look busy”; it starts to feel wrong.

In Squad, low TPS usually shows up as delayed hit registration, rubber-banding, odd vehicle physics and a general sense that movement and combat are a step behind. That is why TPS matters more than a headline slot count. A 100-player server that cannot hold healthy TPS is still an underpowered server.

This is the standard launch example from the Squad wiki, including a fixed player cap and fixed max tickrate:

SquadGameServer.exe Port=7787 QueryPort=27165 beaconport=15000 FIXEDMAXPLAYERS=100 FIXEDMAXTICKRATE=40 RANDOM=NONE -log

FIXEDMAXTICKRATE is a ceiling, not a promise. Setting it to 40 does not force the server to deliver 40 TPS under heavy load; it only tells the server not to go above that rate. If the CPU cannot finish the work in time, actual TPS falls below the cap.

Offworld’s published health bands are simple: green above 35 TPS, yellow below 25 TPS and red below 15 TPS, where a licence is at risk. The policy does not name a band between 25 and 35, so treat that stretch as a warning zone rather than a pass. The practical rule is even simpler: keep TPS above 35 and leave margin, because hovering near the line means one heavier layer, one extra mod or one busy vehicle round can push the server into trouble.

3. CPU decides whether a busy Squad server stays smooth

For a 100-player Squad server, single-thread speed matters more than raw core count. The reason is mechanical: a lot of the work that affects TPS sits on the main simulation path for each tick. Player movement, projectiles, vehicle state, collisions, map actors and replication all compete for time before that tick can complete. If one tick takes too long, the server misses the pace it needs.

Extra cores still help with the operating system, logging, RCON and running more than one game instance. They just do not rescue a weak main thread. That is why the approved CPU list is full of modern, high-clock desktop parts rather than low-frequency, many-core chips. In compact form, Offworld’s approved list covers specific Intel Core i7 and i9 K and KF desktop chips from the 10th to the 14th generation (for example the 10700K, 13700K, 13900K and 14900K), two Xeons (W-1290P and E-2388G), specific AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 models from the 5000, 7000 and 9000 series, including X3D chips such as the 5800X3D, 7800X3D and 9950X3D, and the Epyc 4545P. The full list is in Offworld’s licensing policy, and it is worth checking the exact model rather than the family name. If your CPU is not on that list, comparable performance may still be accepted, but prior approval matters.

The memory recommendation tells the same story. Offworld recommends 3000+ MHz memory, which points the same way: a modern, responsive desktop-class platform. Faster memory does not turn a marginal CPU into a good one, but it avoids pairing a high-TPS target with a slow memory subsystem.

This also explains the no-virtualisation rule for licensed servers. If you need a quick refresher on what a VPS actually is, the performance issue is predictable CPU time. Virtual cores share host resources, scheduling can shift under load, and noisy neighbours can steal the consistency that a high-pop Squad server needs. That unpredictability is exactly what licensing is trying to avoid.

4. RAM budget: start at the official floor, then add headroom on purpose

RAM keeps the server process working in memory instead of falling back on disk. Squad uses memory for map and layer data, connected player state, active assets and any extra mod content you have loaded. When RAM runs tight, the operating system has less room to breathe, startup and map changes take longer, and disk activity becomes more noticeable.

For licensed servers, the hard minimum is 8 GB for one server, with 4 GB extra for each additional instance on the same machine. That is policy, not a comfort rating. Treat it as the legal floor for licensing rather than proof that a full, modded, 100-player community server will always feel happy on the bare minimum.

On one machine that works out at 8 GB for a single server, 12 GB for two instances, 16 GB for three and 20 GB for four. More RAM helps most when you run larger mod packs, heavier layers or several instances on one box. What it does not do is fix poor TPS caused by CPU limits. If the server is CPU-bound, adding RAM simply gives a CPU-bound server more memory. That is still useful for stability and startup behaviour, but it is not a substitute for main-thread performance.

For custom servers, cheaper 2 GB to 6 GB plans can be perfectly fine for very small private, training or test use. They are not the right target for a licensed community server. Also remember that regular restarts are part of the maintenance picture for Squad anyway, so RAM headroom and restart discipline work together rather than replacing each other.

5. Player slots, queue settings and seeding thresholds change the load directly

The fastest way to reduce Squad server requirements on a custom box is to lower the player cap. Fewer active players means fewer actors to update, fewer shots and movement events to process, less replication work and less bandwidth pressure. That mainly saves main-thread CPU per tick, with a smaller secondary benefit to memory use and network load.

Your key capacity settings live in SquadGame/ServerConfig/, especially Server.cfg, plus the launch line. The main ones to set deliberately are MaxPlayers and FIXEDMAXPLAYERS.

MaxPlayers=100
NumReservedSlots=0
PublicQueueLimit=25

NumReservedSlots controls who can bypass the public rush for admin or community access. PublicQueueLimit controls how many people can wait; 0 means no public queue and -1 means unlimited. Queue settings do not add much match simulation load by themselves, because waiting players are not in the live round yet. They change access behaviour, not the cost of the current tick.

For licensed servers, this matters because current policy has no 80-slot minimum, but Offworld can still cut your player limit if TPS is not green. For custom servers, lowering slots is usually the cleanest first fix before spending more money.

Use seeding settings to keep early-pop performance cheap

Squad’s seeding and low-pop settings are practical performance tools. LowPlayerCountThreshold=30 in VoteConfig.cfg can switch the next vote to LayerVotingLowPlayers.cfg, which is where you keep lighter seeding or skirmish options. In CustomOptions.cfg, SeedPlayersThreshold defaults to 50 and SeedMinimumPlayersToLive defaults to 45.

These work because they keep the server on lighter layers while population is still building. That reduces active vehicle complexity, map-wide simulation and replication load. The trade-off is less variety during seeding and sometimes an extra layer switch once the server fills, but it is a cheap way to protect TPS without touching hardware.

6. Mods increase requirements in three different ways

Mods raise Squad server requirements in more than one place. First, they increase disk activity and startup time because the server has more content to load. Second, they increase memory use because those assets and systems have to live somewhere once the server is running. Third, some mods add direct simulation cost during the round, which means more CPU work per tick.

That is why a server can look fine on a vanilla rotation, then suddenly feel worse after a mod pack is added even though the player count has not changed. Every extra mod is not just “more content”; it is more memory pressure, more loading, more join friction and sometimes more per-tick work. Players also need the mod, so larger packs can slow the join process and increase support overhead for your admins.

Offworld’s rule is clear here too: Workshop mods must be performant and must work on Linux and Windows out of the box. If a mod only behaves properly on one platform, it is already a bad fit for a public community server.

Base server and Workshop install lines

The base dedicated server is app ID 403240 in SteamCMD. A minimal update looks like this:

steamcmd +force_install_dir ./squad-server +login anonymous +app_update 403240 validate +quit

Run the same line again to update. If you also want the Public Testing server, that is a separate app ID, 774961.

Workshop content (Squad’s Workshop app ID is 393380) is pulled with SteamCMD, then the numbered mod folder is copied from steamapps/workshop/content/393380/<MODID> into SquadGame/Plugins/Mods before a restart:

steamcmd +login anonymous +force_install_dir ./squad-server +workshop_download_item 393380 <MODID> +quit

After restart, check the startup log for the modded content actually loading. That matters because a mod list that is merely present on disk does not tell you what the server has loaded into memory.

7. Running several Squad instances on one machine

Multiple instances on one box can make sense for a community that wants a licensed public server plus a private training or test instance. The official RAM arithmetic is straightforward for licensing, but CPU contention is usually the harder problem. The second instance is not just “another 4 GB”; it is another process trying to win enough CPU time to finish its own ticks on schedule.

Each instance needs unique ports. A Squad server already uses two game ports (7787 and 7788 UDP) and two query ports (27165 and 27166), so simply adding 1 to each value for the second instance can collide with the first. Leaving a gap of 10 keeps things tidy; beacon ports must also be unique, and the wiki recommends padding those by 5.

A second launch line can look like this:

SquadGameServer.exe Port=7797 QueryPort=27175 beaconport=15005 FIXEDMAXPLAYERS=100 FIXEDMAXTICKRATE=40 RANDOM=NONE -log

The RCON port is set in Rcon.cfg, so remember to give each instance its own value there as well. Also note that clients use ephemeral UDP ports above 30000 after the initial connection, which matters for stricter firewall or NAT rules.

Affinity and RAM limits help stop one instance starving the rest

Processor affinity is useful when several instances share one machine. The point is not to create more CPU performance; it is to stop one busy instance taking disproportionate CPU time and causing the others to stutter.

# Linux: pin this instance to cores 0 to 3
taskset -c 0-3 ./SquadGameServer.sh Port=7787 QueryPort=27165 beaconport=15000 -log

:: Windows: C is a hexadecimal mask, meaning cores 2 and 3
start /AFFINITY C SquadGameServer.exe Port=7797 QueryPort=27175 beaconport=15005 -log

On Linux, taskset handles core affinity; on Windows, start /AFFINITY does the same job. Linux cgroups or systemd-run, and Windows Process Governor, can also cap RAM per instance. The trade-off is that pinning too tightly can leave an instance short of breathing room on a heavier layer, so use affinity to separate noisy siblings, then watch TPS per instance to see if the split is actually helping.

8. Measure first, then decide: tune the server or upgrade the machine

Squad servers should be restarted regularly for performance. Treat that as routine maintenance, not as proof that the hardware is fine. A restart clears the deck and often recovers headroom, but it does not change the CPU class, the slot cap or the cost of your mod pack.

Watch TPS during real load, not on an empty server, using whatever your panel or admin tools report. The -log flag keeps a server log you can check after a bad round, and Rcon.cfg is where you set RCON access; Port=21114 with MaxConnections=5 is the stock pattern, and an empty password leaves RCON off. Compare like with like: similar population, similar layer type and the same mod set.

You know a change helped when the server holds higher TPS under the same sort of round, not when it simply idles cleanly after a restart. If low TPS only appears on one heavy modded layer, tune the rotation. If it appears on ordinary public rounds at ordinary peak population, stop tuning around the problem and upgrade the CPU or reduce the slot target.

9. Pre-purchase checklist before you rent or build

If you are comparing rented plans rather than building from parts, our Squad server hosting comparison is a sensible shortlist for dedicated options and clearer resource allocation. For the broader logic behind clock speed, memory headroom and why game servers do not scale like general-purpose apps, this explains how game server hardware is sized.

1. Pick the browser category first. Licensed means Offworld policy is your minimum. Custom means you can size around the actual job.
2. Confirm the machine type. A licensed server must be on approved physical hardware, not a VM, VPS, VDS or cloud setup that behaves like one.
3. Confirm the CPU path. Use an approved CPU family, or get prior approval for comparable performance before planning a licensed launch.
4. Budget RAM by instance count, then add headroom. Start with 8 GB for one licensed server and 4 GB more per extra instance, then add more if your mod pack and rotation are not modest.
5. Check memory speed. Offworld recommends 3000+ MHz memory. That is a platform quality check, not an optional flourish.
6. Set a realistic player cap from day one. Decide what MaxPlayers and FIXEDMAXPLAYERS should be before the first public night, not after complaints start.
7. Plan mods like a budget. Every permanent mod should earn its place because it costs memory, startup time and often some TPS.
8. If running several instances, plan the whole layout. Unique ports, beacon padding, unique RCON ports, affinity and RAM limits should be decided before launch.
9. Prepare the admin side. Licensed servers need at least 10 admins per server, must remain public, and require reapplication if hardware, hosting provider or ownership changes.
10. Check the platform basics. Windows needs the Visual C++ redistributables and DirectX runtimes; Linux needs 64-bit GLIBC 2.17 or higher. If you host and play on the same network, NAT loopback is required, and if the server runs on the same PC you play on, start the server before you log on to Steam.

Squad server FAQ

How much RAM does a Squad server need?

For a licensed server, Offworld’s current minimum is 8 GB RAM for one server, plus 4 GB more for each extra instance on the same machine. For a custom server there is no formal floor, but 8 GB should be treated as the licensing minimum, not as a comfortable target for a full, modded public community box.

Can I run a licensed Squad server on a VPS?

No. Offworld’s current policy does not permit VM, VPS or VDS hosting for licensed servers because Offworld considers their performance inadequate. A custom server can run that way, but a busy 100-player round is where shared CPU time hurts most.

What CPU is best for a Squad server?

The best CPU is one with strong single-thread performance from Offworld’s approved families, because Squad server TPS depends heavily on how fast the main simulation work completes each tick. More cores help when you run several instances, but they do not compensate for weak per-core speed on a busy public server.

Do mods increase Squad server requirements?

Yes. Mods add disk load during startup, more RAM use once loaded and sometimes extra CPU work during the round. They also add join friction because players need the same mod content, so a larger mod list has an admin cost as well as a hardware cost.

Can I run two Squad servers on one machine?

Yes, but the second instance needs its own ports, its own RCON port, extra RAM and enough CPU headroom to keep both instances healthy at the same time. For licensed hosting, the official minimum rises to 12 GB for two instances, but CPU contention is usually the real limiter, so watch TPS on both servers rather than assuming the RAM figure is the whole answer.

More Squad server help

Compare hosts that offer suitable Squad hardware, or read how game server hardware is sized in general.