How much RAM does a Factorio server need?
Factorio has the lowest baseline of any factory game here, which is a testament to how efficiently it is written — but it scales with what you build, not who is playing.
Recommendation
You need a server with at least
3GB
- Engine / Base OS:
- 2 GB
- Player Overhead:
- +1.0 GB
- Estimated Raw Usage:
- 3 GB
- Suggested cores:
- 4
- Disk to allow:
- 5 GB+
Update rate, not memory, is what fails first on a large factory. Single-thread clock is everything here.
View 3GB PlansWhat actually drives Factorio memory use
The engine is unusually economical with memory, so a small factory runs comfortably in very little. What grows is the entity count: every belt segment, inserter, machine and item in transit is tracked, and a megabase contains millions of them. Large overhaul mods multiply this by adding new items, recipes and surfaces to simulate.
The mistake to avoid
Watching memory when the real constraint is UPS. Factorio is far more likely to become CPU-bound as your factory grows than to run out of memory, so if the game slows down, look at update rate before adding gigabytes that will not help.