Arma 3 server RAM: how much do you need?
In Arma, AI rather than players drives memory, and that makes it behave differently from everything else on this site.
Recommendation
You need a server with at least
8GB
- Engine / Base OS:
- 4 GB
- Player Overhead:
- +4.0 GB
- Estimated Raw Usage:
- 8 GB
- Suggested cores:
- 4
- Disk to allow:
- 40 GB+
AI pathfinding is the bottleneck and is largely single-threaded. Player count barely matters by comparison.
View 8GB PlansWhat uses the memory in Arma 3
A hundred players with no AI is cheap to host. Ten players alongside several hundred AI units, each doing its own pathfinding and decision-making, is expensive. Big dynamic campaigns are the far end of the scale: they simulate a whole theatre continuously, and their cost keeps rising as the campaign state builds up.
Arma 3 server RAM by player count
The calculator above, run for 4 common sizes. Each figure is rounded up to a plan size people actually sell.
| Players | Vanilla / Light Scenarios | Antistasi / ALiVE / Heavy AI |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| 40 | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| 50 | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| 100 | 16 GB | 24 GB |
Where people get it wrong
Counting slots. Check the missions you plan to host instead: a persistent dynamic campaign can want several times the memory of a scenario server with an identical player count, and your mod list sits on top of either.