Free tool
Minecraft Server RAM Calculator
Pick your server software, players and mods. You get the RAM your server needs, how we got there with the sources, and the plan that fits.
The most players you expect online at once.
view-distance in server.properties: 10 chunks in every direction around each player.
Recommended RAM
5GB
Range 5 to 6GB
Standard
Suits this setup
Ryzen 9 3900X-class, DDR4
MC Gold, 5GB
Lists 5 to 10 players
€4.50 /mo
Both buttons open our plan picker with that size selected, where you pick your region.
More headroom: 6GB, MC Lapis at €5.40 on Standard or MC Lapis Premium at €10.50 on Premium.
How we got 5GB
- 10 players: our 5GB Standard plan (MC Gold) lists 5 to 10 players.
- Up to 20 plugins: our smallest plan already lists 10 to 20 plugins.
- More headroom: Mojang's and Paper's own start commands give the server a 4GB heap, and Java needs 1 to 1.5GB on top of that, which makes a 6GB plan.
- The result is the largest of these, rounded up to one of our plan sizes.
Standard suits vanilla or Paper servers with friends and light plugin setups. Premium is for heavy modpacks, big farms and public servers, and its plans list more players for the same RAM. The CPU is shared on both.
Monthly prices in EUR for the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, VAT included. The plan picker shows the price for every region.
Typical RAM for a Minecraft server
Quick answer: Going by the player counts of our Standard plans, a vanilla or Paper server needs 3GB for up to 5 players (4GB on Standard for Minecraft 1.21 and newer), 5GB for up to 10, 8GB for up to 15, 12GB for up to 25, 16GB for up to 40 and 32GB for up to 70. More than 20 plugins start at 6GB, and 50 to 150 mods at 6GB. A modpack needs the heap its server files set plus 1 to 1.5GB for Java: 12 to 16GB for All The Mods 10, 6 to 8GB for SkyFactory 5. Standard starts at €2.70 a month for 3GB (Ryzen 9 3900X-class), Premium at €5.25 (Ryzen 9 9950X), VAT included.
| Setup | RAM | Plan, per month |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla or Paper, up to 5 players | 3GB3 to 6GB | Standard: MC Iron (4GB), €3.60Premium: MC Coal Premium, €5.25 |
| Vanilla or Paper, 10 players | 5GB5 to 6GB | Standard: MC Gold, €4.50Premium: MC Gold Premium, €8.75 |
| Paper with up to 20 plugins, 15 players | 8GB | Standard: MC Diamond, €7.20Premium: MC Diamond, €13.99 |
| Paper with more than 20 plugins, 20 players | 12GB | Standard: MC Special 1, €10.80Premium: MC Special 1, €21.99 |
| Vanilla or Paper, 40 players | 16GB | Standard: MC Special 3, €14.40Premium: MC Special 3, €27.99 |
| Fabric or NeoForge with up to 50 mods, 5 players | 4GB4 to 6GB | Standard: MC Iron, €3.60Premium: MC Iron Premium, €6.99 |
| Fabric or NeoForge with 50 to 150 mods, 10 players | 6GB5 to 6GB | Standard: MC Lapis, €5.40Premium: MC Lapis Premium, €10.50 |
| All The Mods 10, 1 to 5 players | 12GB12 to 16GB | Standard: MC Special 1, €10.80Premium: MC Special 1, €21.99 |
| All The Mods 10, 5 to 15 players | 16GB | Standard: MC Special 3, €14.40Premium: MC Special 3, €27.99 |
| Cobblemon, up to 10 players | 8GB8 to 12GB | Standard: MC Diamond, €7.20Premium: MC Diamond, €13.99 |
| Prominence II, 3 to 4 players | 12GB8 to 12GB | Standard: MC Special 1, €10.80Premium: MC Special 1, €21.99 |
View distance 10, the default. Prices in EUR for the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, VAT included. MC Coal (3GB) on Standard runs Minecraft up to 1.20.4, so for 1.21 and newer the Standard plan starts at MC Iron (4GB). More packs in our modpack RAM guide.
How we calculate
The calculator works out a size for each of the rules below and takes the largest, rounded up to one of our plans. Each rule comes from our own plan list or from the source linked in it.
1. Players
Each Standard plan lists a player count: 3GB 3 to 5, 4GB 4 to 8, 5GB 5 to 10, 6GB 8 to 12, 8GB 10 to 15, 12GB 15 to 25, 15GB 25 to 30, 16GB 30 to 40 and 32GB 50 to 70. We take the smallest plan that covers your players. Premium plans list more players for the same RAM (8GB: 20 to 30 players), so the same size on Premium has room to spare.
2. View distance
View distance is a radius in chunks around each player, 10 by default (Minecraft Wiki, server.properties), so the area of chunks a player loads grows with the square of the distance. Above 10 we count your players up by that ratio, (2 × distance + 1)² against 21² at the default: 1.42 at 12 and 2.47 at 16. Below 10 we keep the count as it is.
3. Plugins and mods
Up to 20 plugins fit our smallest plan, which lists 10 to 20. For more, our PaperMC page puts 50 to 100 plugins, heavy ones included, at 6 to 8GB. Mods follow the plan list too: up to 50 mods on 4GB, 50 to 80 mods on 5GB and 100 to 150 mods on 6GB.
4. Modpacks
Each pack in the calculator uses the sizes of its page on this site, or of our modpack RAM guide for packs without a page, and those start from the heap the pack's server files set. Java needs memory on top of the heap: Paper's docs say to keep the heap about 1,000 to 1,500MB below the memory you have (Paper docs, Aikar's flags), so a pack with an 8GB heap starts at 12GB. Where a page or a pack team gives player counts we follow them, such as 1 to 5 players on 12GB for All The Mods 10, or the Prominence II team's 8GB for 3 to 4 players and 1GB more for every extra player. For another pack, enter the heap its server files set.
5. Headroom
Mojang's server download page and Paper's getting started page both start the server with a 4GB heap. With Java on top that is our 6GB plan, the top of the range for a server without a modpack. Paper's guide to Aikar's flags goes further and recommends a heap of at least 6 to 10GB no matter how few players, because the G1 garbage collector works better with more memory. To follow that, pick 8GB or 12GB and set the heap about 1.5GB below the plan.
6. Version and Bedrock
MC Coal (3GB) on Standard runs Minecraft up to 1.20.4, so for 1.21 and newer the Standard pick starts at MC Iron (4GB). Bedrock players join through Geyser, which runs as a plugin on Paper or as a mod on Fabric and NeoForge (GeyserMC FAQ). It publishes no memory figure, so we size the Java server for everyone who plays.
Sources checked 25 October 2026. The calculator gives a starting size. Real use depends on your world, farms and plugins, and you can move to a bigger plan later without losing your world.
Related pages
All Minecraft plans
Every size on Standard and Premium, with the price for each region
Modpack hosting
RAM guide and loaders for popular CurseForge and Modrinth packs
PaperMC hosting
Plugin servers on Paper, Purpur and Spigot
Server networks
Several servers behind a Velocity or BungeeCord proxy
More reading: view and simulation distance, Aikar's flags and Geyser and Floodgate for Bedrock players.
Minecraft RAM FAQ
- Players come first. Going by the player counts of our Standard plans, a vanilla or Paper server needs 3GB for up to 5 players (4GB on Standard for Minecraft 1.21 and newer), 5GB for up to 10, 8GB for up to 15, 12GB for up to 25, 16GB for up to 40 and 32GB for up to 70. Plugins and mods add to that: more than 20 plugins start at 6GB and 50 to 150 mods at 6GB, while a modpack needs what its server files ask for plus room for Java. For headroom, Mojang and Paper start the server with a 4GB heap in their own examples, which makes a 6GB plan.
- For vanilla or Paper, 5GB: our 5GB Standard plan lists 5 to 10 players. With more than 20 plugins it is 6 to 8GB, and with 50 to 150 mods 6GB. Modpacks need more: All The Mods 10 takes 16GB for 5 to 15 players and Cobblemon 8GB for up to 10. For 5GB that is MC Gold at €4.50 a month on Standard or MC Gold Premium at €8.75 on Premium.
- Up to 50 mods fit in 4GB and 50 to 150 mods in 5 to 6GB, going by our plan list. A big modpack needs the heap its server files set plus 1 to 1.5GB for Java, as Paper's docs advise; look for -Xmx in user_jvm_args.txt or JAVA_ARGS in variables.txt. That is why All The Mods 10 and FTB StoneBlock 4, whose server files set an 8GB heap, both start at 12GB, and SkyFactory 5 with its 4GB heap at 6GB. The calculator has every pack we have a page for, and our modpack RAM guide lists more.
- About 1 to 1.5GB below your plan's RAM. Paper's docs say Java needs memory on top of the -Xmx heap and give the example of using 6500MB on an 8GB server. Set -Xms to the same value as -Xmx, as the same docs advise for the G1 garbage collector. Modpack server files often set their own heap in user_jvm_args.txt, so check that file after you install a pack and raise it to fit your plan. Our guide to Aikar's flags has the full start line.
- Yes. View distance is a radius in chunks around each player, so the area of chunks a player loads grows with the square of the distance: 12 loads about 1.4 times as many chunks as the default of 10, and 16 about 2.5 times. The calculator counts your players up by that ratio above 10, so at 16 each player counts as 2.47. A lower view distance loads fewer chunks, and RLCraft's server notes suggest 8 or even 6 when many players cause performance issues. More in our view and simulation distance guide.
- Bedrock players join a Java server through Geyser with Floodgate. Geyser runs as a plugin on Paper or Purpur, or as a mod on Fabric and NeoForge, and GeyserMC publishes no memory figure for it, so size the Java server for everyone who plays. Servers that need mods on the player's side do not work through Geyser. Geyser needs a UDP port: every plan includes three port allocations, and we can raise that to five on request. Our Geyser and Floodgate guide walks through the setup.
- No. Paper's docs say more memory stops improving performance above a certain point, and the Pixelmon wiki advises against a heap above 16GB. Start at the size the calculator shows: you can upgrade to a bigger plan at any time from your client area, and your files and world stay intact.
- Both come in the same RAM sizes on different hardware. Standard runs on a Ryzen 9 3900X-class CPU with DDR4 and suits vanilla or Paper servers with friends and light plugin setups, from €2.70 for 3GB. Premium runs on a Ryzen 9 9950X with DDR5, from €5.25; pick it for heavy modpacks, big farms and public servers. Premium plans list more players for the same RAM, for example 20 to 30 players on 8GB against 10 to 15 players on Standard. The CPU is shared on both.
Minecraft servers from €2.70 a month
NVMe storage and DDoS protection on every plan. Install a CurseForge or Modrinth pack from the panel, or upload your own server files over SFTP.
See Minecraft plans