Factorio server RAM: how much do you need?
Factorio starts lower than any other factory game here, which says a lot about how efficiently it is built — but it grows with your factory, not with your player list.
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.
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What uses the memory in Factorio
The engine is remarkably frugal with memory, so a small base barely needs any. What climbs is the entity count: each belt segment, inserter, machine and item on the move is tracked, and a megabase holds millions. Big overhaul mods multiply that with new items, recipes and surfaces to simulate.
Factorio 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 | Standard Factory | Space Exploration / Krastorio |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 3 GB | 12 GB |
| 13 | 4 GB | 12 GB |
| 25 | 6 GB | 12 GB |
| 50 | 8 GB | 16 GB |
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Where people get it wrong
Watching the wrong number. As a Factorio base grows it will almost always run short of CPU — you will see it in UPS — long before it runs short of memory. If the game slows, check the update rate before buying gigabytes that will make no difference.
Saves and autosaves
Autosaves are written every autosave_interval minutes, 10 by default, rotating through autosave_slots files, 5 by default. Each is a full copy of the map, and a megabase save is large, so plan disk for several copies of your biggest save. While a save is being written the game pauses for everyone, which on a big factory is the stutter players notice every ten minutes.
Saving without the pause
non_blocking_saving makes the server save in the background instead, so play continues during the save. It works by forking the server process, which only happens on Linux and other UNIX systems, briefly needs roughly double the memory, and is marked as highly experimental in Factorio's own example settings. Keep regular backups if you turn it on.