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# How Much RAM Does a Palworld Server Need? (Sizing Guide)
- URL: https://game.hostwolf.net/blog/palworld-server-ram-sizing/
- Published: 2026-10-07T02:22:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T00:46:03.000Z
- Description: Palworld officially recommends 16 GB of server RAM — but the real answer depends on your world, not just your player count. A practical sizing table, the restart-vs-upgrade diagnostic, and how to keep memory growth in check.
- Author: Hostwolf Team
- Tags: Palworld, Survival, Performance

Pocketpair's official documentation recommends **16 GB of RAM** for a Palworld dedicated server. 8 GB will boot the server but carries a real risk of out-of-memory crashes, and Pocketpair says "more than 32 GB" for larger setups. So: how much RAM does a Palworld server need? The fuller answer most sizing guides skip is that Palworld sizes to world state and uptime, not just player count. A server that never restarts needs more RAM than the same number of players on a server with a scheduled restart.

This guide uses [Pocketpair's official requirements page](https://docs.palworldgame.com/getting-started/requirements?ref=game.hostwolf.net) as the baseline, then layers on the practical stuff: a sizing table with honest ranges, the memory-growth problem, and the restart-versus-upgrade diagnostic that saves people money.

## Official Palworld server requirements (v1.0)

From [Pocketpair's official Server Guide](https://docs.palworldgame.com/getting-started/requirements?ref=game.hostwolf.net), current for v1.0:

| Requirement | Official spec                                                                           |
| ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| RAM         | 16 GB recommended; 8 GB boots with OOM crash risk; "more than 32 GB" for larger servers |
| CPU         | 4+ cores, no clock speed or model specified                                             |
| Storage     | Fast SSD (slow storage "may corrupt saved data")                                        |
| Network     | UDP 8211 (default, changeable)                                                          |
| OS          | 64-bit Windows or Linux                                                                 |

You'll notice many host pages quote 8 GB as "the requirement." The docs call 8 GB boot-only, with increased risk of out-of-memory crashes. That's a different claim, and the difference matters when your server is three weeks into a community save.

Two caveats on the official numbers. First, the "more than 32 GB for larger servers" wording is ambiguous. It is not a promise for any specific player count, and Pocketpair does not publish a players-per-GB table. Second, version 1.0 shipped dedicated-server optimizations, so measurements from Early Access guides don't transfer 1:1\. If you're reading a sizing article that predates 1.0, treat its numbers with suspicion.

## Palworld server RAM sizing table by player count

Twenty people on your Discord who log in once a week is not a 20-player server. What matters is the most players online at the same time, because Palworld allocates memory for persistent world state (bases, worker Pals, Pal Box items, dropped crates) rather than purely per connected player, as [fly-serv's analysis](https://www.fly-serv.com/en/blog/palworld-server-requirements-ram-cpu-save-size?ref=game.hostwolf.net) puts it. Size for your busiest evening, not your member list.

No source agrees perfectly on the numbers, so these are ranges, not gospel:

| Peak simultaneous players | RAM range | Notes                                                                     |
| ------------------------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 2–4                       | 8–12 GB   | Sources conflict: some say 6 GB works with daily restarts                 |
| 5–10                      | 8–16 GB   | 8 GB works if you restart regularly                                       |
| 10–16                     | 12–24 GB  | Most community-sized worlds land here                                     |
| 16–32                     | 16–32 GB  | Approaching Pocketpair's "larger servers" territory                       |
| 32+                       | 32 GB+    | Official guidance; some sources say 32 is the game's ceiling (unverified) |

Drawn from the [HostMyGame 1.0 table](https://hostmygame.eu/en/guides/palworld/how-much-ram-palworld?ref=game.hostwolf.net), [gamehosting.app's conservative sizing](https://gamehosting.app/blog/palworld/palworld-server-ram-requirements/?ref=game.hostwolf.net), and [Nodecraft's tiers](https://nodecraft.com/support/games/palworld/setup/how-much-ram-does-a-palworld-server-need-?ref=game.hostwolf.net). Note where they disagree: gamehosting.app says 6 GB is fine for 2–4 casual players with daily restarts, while others won't go below 8 GB. Our pick for a small friends-and-family world: 8 GB minimum, 12 GB if you can afford it, because headroom is cheap compared to a crashed server at peak hours.

Whatever tier you land on, add 2–4 GB of headroom (roughly 30%) for the memory-growth behavior we'll cover below.

### Why world state matters as much as player count

What drives the big end of the table? Mostly world density. A base with 15 working Pals runs continuous AI decisions, work-suitability checks and pathfinding. That's the single biggest load source in a mature world, per [fly-serv](https://www.fly-serv.com/en/blog/palworld-server-requirements-ram-cpu-save-size?ref=game.hostwolf.net), and 1.0 roughly doubled the map on top of that.

A few config settings in `PalWorldSettings.ini` trim that load:

- `BaseCampMaxNumInGuild` (default 3) and `BaseCampWorkerMaxNum` (default 15): fewer bases and worker Pals per guild means less simulation
- `DropItemMaxNum` (default 3000): cap the loot littering your world
- `ServerReplicatePawnCullDistance` (default 15000): lower it and clients track fewer distant Pals

## Why Palworld memory creeps up over time (and why more RAM only delays it)

The documented pattern: a Palworld server's RAM rises steadily even at a constant player count, and drops after a restart. This memory-growth behavior (most people call it a leak) is the defining operational issue with Palworld servers, and per [game-serverhosting.com](https://game-serverhosting.com/en/guides/palworld/pw-server-performance-ram?ref=game.hostwolf.net), the process still occupies more memory every hour of operation even after 1.0.

![A glowing orange energy line chart rises across a dark server-room landscape, with racks silhouetted against cool…](https://game.hostwolf.net/blog/content/images/2026/10/palworld-server-ram-sizing-ram-growth-chart.webp)

Sizing a Palworld server: how RAM needs grow as your world fills up.

A typical timeline, based on [ConnectHosting's reporting](https://connecthosting.net/blog/palworld-memory-leak-fix?ref=game.hostwolf.net): days 2–3 bring RAM creep and rubber-banding, days 4–6 bring lag spikes, and without spare memory you hit an out-of-memory crash within about a week. Treat those as illustrative rather than precise; that source published no measurements.

Pocketpair has been patching at it. Dedicated-server leak fixes landed in [v0.3.10 (October 2024) and v0.5.3 (April 2025)](https://serverside.com/blog/how-to-host-a-palworld-server?ref=game.hostwolf.net), long-session optimization came in v0.6.2 (July 2025), and 1.0's release notes included further fixes. Growth has improved but remains a live operational issue.

The key takeaway: more RAM pushes the ceiling further away. It does not fix growth. If your server gains 500 MB a day, a 16 GB plan just crashes later than an 8 GB plan.

## Restart, don't upgrade: the diagnostic that saves you money

Here's the decision rule we'd use: **if RAM climbs steadily at a constant player count and drops after a restart, the fix is a schedule, not a bigger plan.** A restart wipes the accumulated memory and you're back to a clean baseline. This is the consensus fix across every guide worth reading.

An upgrade is only justified when:

- RAM saturates repeatedly even with scheduled restarts
- You're getting OOM crashes right after a fresh restart
- You can measure a real stability win from the extra headroom

One counterintuitive check before you spend money: if CPU cores are pegged while RAM headroom remains, you have a CPU bottleneck, not a RAM problem. Lag concentrated near big bases is usually simulation and density load, not memory. Upgrading RAM for that symptom does nothing.

When you do restart, do it gracefully. The documented sequence from [Pocketpair's configuration docs](https://docs.palworldgame.com/settings-and-operation/configuration?ref=game.hostwolf.net):

1. `/Save` to flush the world to disk
2. `/Broadcast` a warning message, e.g. `/Broadcast Restarting in 60 seconds!`
3. `/Shutdown 60`, which gives players a minute to wrap up

## How to schedule restarts and backups that keep a Palworld server stable

### Restart cadence: what sources recommend and why there's no universal number

There is no authoritative figure, and the sources genuinely conflict: [XGamingServer recommends](https://xgamingserver.com/docs/palworld/memory-leak-fix?ref=game.hostwolf.net) 4–6 hours for small servers up to hourly for large ones, while [WebsNP recommends](https://www.websnp.com/help/palworld-dedicated-server-hosting-setup-guide?ref=game.hostwolf.net) 6–12 hours during low-traffic windows. Our practical read: every 6–12 hours for busy worlds, daily for quiet ones, timed for your lowest-population window (5:00 AM is the classic pick).

### Backing up safely

Back up `Pal/Saved/SaveGames/` immediately after a clean shutdown, never mid-write, per [WebsNP](https://www.websnp.com/help/palworld-dedicated-server-hosting-setup-guide?ref=game.hostwolf.net). Keep `bIsUseBackupSaveData=True` in your config too. Per [the official docs](https://docs.palworldgame.com/settings-and-operation/configuration?ref=game.hostwolf.net), this setting maintains a rotating backup directory alongside your save (5 saves per 30 seconds, 6 per 10 minutes, 12 per hour, 7 per day), at the cost of extra disk load. It's cheap insurance for a save you may have months of work in.

### Watch the save file

`Level.sav` holds the entire world (bases, Pals, containers, guilds) and is the file that grows. It starts in the low single-digit megabytes and reaches 40–150 MB with a dozen active players, per [fly-serv](https://www.fly-serv.com/en/blog/palworld-server-requirements-ram-cpu-save-size?ref=game.hostwolf.net). Bigger saves mean longer save freezes, because every autosave serializes the whole file. You can check yours with `ls -lh */Level.sav` in `~/Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/`. Growth over 10 MB a week means your world density is climbing.

### Save frequency

`AutoSaveSpan` in `PalWorldSettings.ini` controls autosave interval, but sources conflict on the default (one says 30 s, another 15 s, the official docs list no default). The concrete test: set the value you're considering, watch the `Level.sav` timestamps for a day to see how often it actually writes, then weigh crash recovery against save freezes. Some admins on large worlds stretch it to 600 s to reduce save freezes. Just remember a longer span means more lost progress on a crash.

On Hostwolf, built-in schedules handle the nightly restart, and daily backups with one-click restore cover the safety net, so you don't need to wire up cron yourself.

## RAM vs CPU: why your server might lag even with free memory

Palworld's simulation is single-thread-sensitive, which means per-core clock speed matters more than core count, according to [fly-serv's analysis](https://www.fly-serv.com/en/blog/palworld-server-requirements-ram-cpu-save-size?ref=game.hostwolf.net). Four-plus cores is a baseline, not a smooth-play guarantee. The only way to know is to test under real load with real players.

A quick symptom map:

- **High RAM usage plus lag**: memory growth; fix the restart schedule first
- **Low RAM use plus lag**: CPU/density problem; RAM won't help
- **Lag only near large bases**: world-state load from Pals and pathfinding

Storage matters too. A 150 MB save serialized on slow disk causes 1–2 second freezes every autosave. This is why the official docs recommend a fast SSD and warn that slow storage may corrupt saved data. It's not a nicety.

## Picking the right plan

Match the sizing table to a plan: start at the 16 GB tier for a real community server, and step up toward 32 GB for packed, long-running worlds that don't restart often. Because the simulation is single-thread-sensitive, dedicated-CPU options are worth a look. You're paying for consistent per-core performance, which is exactly what Palworld wants.

The operational side matters just as much as raw specs. With [Hostwolf Palworld server hosting](https://hostwolf.net/games/palworld?ref=game.hostwolf.net), you get your own cloud machine, scheduled restarts, daily backups with one-click restore, a live console, and per-game settings editors for things like `BaseCampWorkerMaxNum`. Check [Hostwolf pricing by RAM size](https://hostwolf.net/pricing?ref=game.hostwolf.net) for current plans and regions.

## Wrapping up

The honest answer to "how much RAM does a Palworld server need" is a baseline plus a habit. The baseline: 16 GB for anything beyond a casual friends-only world, scaled up toward 32 GB for packed servers. The habit: scheduled restarts, because memory growth with uptime is documented behavior and more RAM only delays it, never fixes it.

Size for the world you'll have in two months, with more bases, more Pals and a bigger `Level.sav`, not the one you have on day one.