Start at 4 GB. 2 GB is the bare minimum a Valheim server will boot on, and 4 GB is the recommended figure. If you want the short answer, that is it, and you can change it later without losing anything.
The longer answer is worth reading if you are planning a long-running world, because the thing that drives Valheim's memory use is not the thing most people expect.
It is your world, not your player count
Most server sizing guides work off player numbers. For Valheim that is a weak signal, for one simple reason: the game caps at ten players. Iron Gate confirmed the 1–10 range is unchanged in 1.0, so every group that will ever play on your server fits between one player and ten. There is not enough spread there to size a server on.
What actually grows is the world. Valheim holds the active parts of your map in memory, and a world accumulates:
- Structures. Every piece of a base is a tracked object. A large longhouse with outbuildings, portals and stone walls is a lot of pieces.
- Terrain edits. Every raise, level and dig is stored as a change against the generated ground. Flattening a hillside for a build site is more expensive to remember than the hillside was.
- Tamed animals and dropped items. Boar pens breed. Item stacks left on the floor of a base persist. Neither disappears because you logged off.
This is why a three-month-old world with two regular players can want more memory than a fresh world with eight. Age and building density beat headcount.
Where your players are matters too
Valheim keeps the area around each connected player active. A group all working on one base is cheap: everyone is loading the same place. The same group scattered across four biomes on separate projects is the expensive case, because the server is holding several parts of the map live at once.
If your group plays as a raiding party, 4 GB goes a long way. If your group splits up and builds outposts, expect to want more sooner.
When to add more
You do not need to guess ahead of time. These are the signs the world has outgrown its memory:
- Stutter when players spread out that is not there when everyone is together.
- The server restarts on its own after running for a while. A server that runs fine for an hour and then drops is a much stronger memory signal than one that never starts.
- It got worse over time on the same world with the same group and no other change. That is the world growing into the ceiling.
- Long or failed saves. If the periodic world write starts causing a visible hitch, the world is large.
What is not a memory signal: one player lagging while everyone else is fine (that is their connection), or a slow initial world load (that is normal on a big map).
What 2 GB is actually for
2 GB will start a server and run a fresh world for a small group. It is a real floor, not a decorative one. But it is a floor: it leaves you nothing spare for the world to grow into, and a Valheim world grows whether or not you planned for it to. We list it because some people genuinely want the smallest possible server for a short, disposable world, and that is a legitimate thing to want.
If your world is meant to last, start at 4 GB.
Changing it later
RAM is not a decision you are locked into. You can move your server up or down from your account at any time, and your world is not affected — the save lives on the server and survives the change. So there is no reason to over-buy at the start "just in case". Start at the recommended figure and let the world tell you when it needs more.
What this guide does not claim
We are not going to hand you a table of exact megabytes per player, because an honest one does not exist. Two ten-player worlds can differ by a wide margin depending on how much has been built in them, and any number we printed would be wrong for somebody.
It is worth saying plainly where the figures above come from: Iron Gate's dedicated server manual does not publish a memory requirement at all. 2 GB and 4 GB are the values the Valheim server community has settled on, and they match what we would tell you anyway. They are a sensible place to start, not a specification, and that is exactly how you should treat them.
If you are not sure what your particular world needs, open a ticket and we will look at your service with you.
See also: connecting to your server · admin, permissions and world settings.
