Start at 16 GB for most maps. 12 GB holds up on the lighter ones with a small group. The heavy maps want 20 GB or more. That is the short answer. The longer answer is a table, because on ARK: Survival Ascended the map you run decides your memory bill far more than the number of players does — and as far as we can tell, nobody publishes the per-map numbers side by side.
The per-map table
The ARK community wiki publishes measured memory for a fresh world on default settings with nobody connected. For the maps it has not measured yet, what exists is reports from players and hosts running them — useful, but not the same thing, so the table says which is which:
| Map | Empty world | Sensible starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Scorched Earth | 7.5 to 9 GiB, measured | 12 GB |
| Extinction | 7 to 8.5 GiB, measured | 12 GB |
| The Island | 8 to 10 GiB, measured | 12 to 14 GB |
| Aberration | 8 to 10 GiB, measured | 12 to 14 GB |
| The Center | 10.5 to 12 GiB, measured | 16 GB |
| Valguero, Ragnarok | Not published. Players report 12 to 16 GB in use | 16 GB |
| Lost Colony, Astraeos | Not published. Players report 15 to 20 GB and higher | 20 GB or more |
Two of those rows are honest guesses and we would rather say so than dress them up. Studio Wildcard has published no memory figures for the newer maps and the wiki's rows for them are still blank, so those numbers come from people running the maps rather than from a measurement anyone can point at.
Astraeos deserves its own sentence: it spans more than 264 square kilometers, and Wildcard shipped its Heaven and the Abyss expansion on 27 August 2026 — a floating-island region, a deep-sea region built for underwater bases, and warship combat. A heavy map that is still growing is exactly the one to size generously.
Players cost less than you think
Each connected player adds roughly 50 to 150 MB. Twenty players together add around 2 GB, which is less than the gap between two rows of the table above. (That per-player figure was measured on ARK: Survival Evolved; Wildcard has not published an Ascended equivalent, so treat it as the right order of magnitude rather than a spec.)
Some hosts price ARK servers by player slots. Nothing wrong with selling slots, but on this game slots are the smaller variable. If you are choosing between a bigger slot count and more memory for the map you actually run, the memory wins.
The spike after a restart is not a leak
For about ten minutes after every restart, memory runs high while creatures spawn in. Then quiet areas of the map fall into stasis and usage settles. Judge your server after that window, not during it — a reading taken two minutes after a reboot will talk you into an upgrade you may not need.
Mods, and what they add
ASA mods are delivered through CurseForge by the server itself, so every mod on your list is loaded server-side. Figure roughly 50 to 200 MB per mod: a normal list of fifteen to twenty mods adds 1 to 4 GB, and large overhaul mods sit at the top of that range. A workable rule: add 2 GB over the vanilla figure for a normal mod list, 4 GB for an overhaul.
Your world grows. Plan for it
The thing that genuinely moves memory over months is the save itself. Structures, tames and stored items all accumulate, so a server that felt roomy in week one often wants more by month three. That is not a fault; it is what a living map does. You can add RAM to a GG Host server from the upgrade menu at any time, so the cheap move is to start at the size your map needs today and upgrade when the world has earned it.
A cluster is several servers, not one bigger one
One server runs one map. A cluster — the setup where characters and tames transfer between maps — is several server processes, each with its own memory. Two maps at 16 GB each is 32 GB of RAM, not 16. Budget per map, then add maps.
The short version
- Scorched Earth or Extinction, small group: 12 GB.
- The Island or Aberration: 12 to 14 GB.
- The Center, Valguero or Ragnarok: 16 GB.
- Lost Colony or Astraeos: 20 GB or more.
- Add 2 GB for a normal mod list, 4 GB for overhauls.
- Ignore the first ten minutes after a restart.
- Clusters: budget per map.
Ready to pick a size? The ARK: Survival Ascended server page starts the slider at these numbers, and the RAM guidance on the order form repeats this table so you do not have to keep this page open.
