How much RAM does a Minecraft server actually need (honest numbers per player)
MinecraftShort answer: for a vanilla Java world, figure about 4 players for every 1 GB of server RAM. That is our published advisory, and the honest math plus the honest limits sit on this page.
The arithmetic we publish
Take a plan's RAM and multiply by 4. The result is about how many players a vanilla server carries comfortably. 2 GB gives you about 8 players. 8 GB gives you about 32. Modded worlds ask more of every gigabyte, so for mods and modpacks take the vanilla number and halve it: the same 8 GB that fits about 32 vanilla players is sized for about 16 players when the world runs mods.
These are advisories, not caps. We do not police player counts. Real use varies around the table in both directions: a small map with a few plugins runs leaner than the advisory, and a mob farm heavy world with big view distance runs heavier. Use the table as your starting size, then watch your server's own CPU and RAM graphs in the panel.
The table
| Plan | RAM | Monthly price | About how many vanilla players | Storage quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 2 GB | 5.50 | about 8 | 15 GB |
| Plus | 4 GB | 11.00 | about 16 | 30 GB |
| Core | 6 GB | 16.50 | about 24 | 45 GB |
| Peak | 8 GB | 22.00 | about 32 | 60 GB |
| Summit | 12 GB | 33.00 | about 48 | 90 GB |
| Crest | 16 GB | 44.00 | about 64 | 120 GB |
| Titan | 24 GB | 66.00 | about 96 | 180 GB |
Every tier prices at RAM x 2.75 exactly. There is no per-player slot limit sold on any plan; player slots are unlimited (fair use). The live table always sits on the pricing page .
Storage: the second honest number
Worlds grow as players explore, so every tier carries a storage quota: 15 GB on Starter up to 180 GB on Titan. Your world and its files fill your storage quota; backups are kept separately and use backup slots instead. If a world outgrows its quota, extra storage sells in 25 GB blocks at 2.00 per month.
What eats RAM in practice
- Player count and view distance: both pull the graph up.
- Plugins and mods: one is small, a wall of them is not; modpacks are the heavy end of the hobby.
- What the world does: mob farms, redstone, huge explored maps.
None of these carry fixed numbers we would trust more than your own graphs, so we do not print fake precision here.
The honest limits of this guide
- Modded asks vary. The halved rule is guidance, not physics. A heavy modpack can want more than the halved table says and a light one wants less; test on your tier and read the graphs.
- The hardware is one machine, and we say so: one dedicated node, Xeon E3-1270 v6, 4 cores and 8 threads at 3.8 to 4.2 GHz, 32 GiB RAM, 3.6 TB RAID with 3.4 TB free. A slice of that RAM runs the host system itself, so not every GiB on the label is sellable, and the ladder is sized for what the machine can honor. CPU is shared across the servers on the node; for most worlds RAM is the honest sizing axis, and very busy servers with many players at once are the cases where CPU matters too.
- Our biggest tier is Titan, 24 GB, and it stays on sale only while the node can honor it. There is no 32 GB tier on this machine.