A small vanilla or Paper Minecraft server runs comfortably on 2–4 GB of RAM for up to about 10 players. Servers with more players, heavy plugins or modpacks need more — 6–8 GB covers most mid-sized servers, and heavily modded packs can want 8–12 GB or more.
Why RAM matters in Minecraft
Minecraft keeps the world, entities, chunk data and loaded plugins or mods in memory. When RAM runs out, the server spends time on garbage collection and disk churn, which shows up as lag spikes, slow chunk loading and a lower tick rate. Allocating a sensible amount of RAM is the single biggest factor in a smooth server — but more RAM than you need does not make a server faster by itself.
RAM guidance by server type
| Server type | Players | Recommended RAM |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla / Paper, light plugins | 1–10 | 2–4 GB |
| Paper with plugins, small community | 10–20 | 4–6 GB |
| Paper / Spigot, active community | 20–50 | 6–10 GB |
| Modded (Forge / Fabric, 30–100 mods) | 1–20 | 6–12 GB |
| Heavy modpacks (All the Mods, etc.) | 1–10 | 8–16 GB |
These are starting points. A well-tuned Paper server uses less RAM than an equivalent vanilla one, and a handful of heavy plugins can use more than the table suggests.
How to check your server's RAM usage
In the NodeHarbor panel you can see live memory usage for your server. If usage sits near 90–100% for long periods, or you see lag during peak play, you are hitting your RAM ceiling — that's the signal to move to the next tier rather than tuning configs forever.
Current Minecraft plans at NodeHarbor
NodeHarbor offers dedicated, clear RAM tiers so you only pay for what your community needs, and you can upgrade at any time (the price difference is prorated). The live plans below are read directly from our current catalogue.