Palworld Memory Leak: Why Your Server Keeps Getting Slower
The Palworld server process demonstrably climbs in memory use the longer it runs. A server for four players sitting calmly at 5 GB on day one can be pushing 8 GB a week later, without a single thing changing in the world or the player count. No setting solves this completely: the only approach that works is a scheduled automatic restart, usually every 6 to 12 hours, which clears the memory again.
Adding more RAM feels like the obvious answer, but extra memory only means it takes longer before you hit the limit. The limit still arrives.
What is a memory leak, exactly?
While it runs, a program constantly asks for small chunks of memory to store things in: where a Pal is standing, what is inside a chest, what a base has just produced. Once a chunk is no longer needed, the program is supposed to hand it back so it can be reused.
With a memory leak, that handing back never happens, or never happens fully. The process holds on to memory it is not actually using any more. Every hour, a little more piles up. In the short term you notice nothing; over the long term the process eats its way towards the machine's ceiling.
How do you spot the memory leak on your server?
The leak does not announce itself with an error message. The pattern to look for: things get gradually worse, and after a restart everything is perfect again. That last part is the decisive signal.
- The server feels smooth on Monday and sluggish on Thursday, with nothing having changed.
- Memory use in your panel climbs steadily and never drops back to the level it had just after startup.
- Pals respond slowly, get stuck mid-task or rubber-band a short distance backwards.
- After a restart everything is normal, and a few days later the same thing starts over.
If memory stays flat while the server still stutters, you are looking at something else. Our explanation of what TPS, MSPT, FPS and ping mean helps you tell server lag apart from network lag.
Why does extra RAM not fix it?
Pocketpair recommends 16 GB of RAM for a dedicated server; it will start on 8 GB too, but Pocketpair flags that configuration as crash-prone itself. That advice is about running comfortably, not about the leak. Which amount of memory suits which group is covered in how much RAM your Palworld server needs. A server with 32 GB leaks just as fast as one with 8 GB.
Do the maths. A server for four players starts at 5 GB and creeps towards 8 GB within a week. On 16 GB that takes longer, but the destination is identical: the process hits the ceiling and crashes or freezes.
A daily clean restart keeps the server permanently in that fresh day-one baseline. Extra RAM does not. Memory is your safety margin when a restart gets skipped once, but that is a safety net, not a solution.
How do you schedule an automatic restart?
Every decent hosting panel has a task scheduler. In the Pterodactyl panel you will find it under Schedules.
- Open your server in the panel and go to the scheduled tasks section.
- Create a new task with a recognisable name, for example "Nightly restart".
- Set the time to an hour when nobody is playing. For a European group, 5am is a safe choice.
- Add a broadcast as the first action, warning players a few minutes in advance.
- Then add the restart action, with a short wait in between.
- Check the graph the next day to confirm that memory use really dropped back.
Without a panel you do the same thing with a cron line: 0 5 * * * restarts the service every day at five.
Why pick a quiet moment? Palworld saves the world during a clean restart, but a restart in the middle of a raid still costs you the last few minutes of progress. At 5am nobody is online, and if something goes wrong during startup you will spot it long before the group plays that evening.
How often should you restart?
That depends on how hard your server leaks, which comes down to your player count and what is happening in the world. Start with daily.
| Rhythm | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Every 6 hours | Busy servers or servers with raids enabled | Four interruptions a day, so keep them off your peak hours |
| Every 12 hours | Mid-sized groups that build and breed a lot | One restart will always land while somebody is playing |
| Daily | Regular group of 4 to 6 players | A solid starting point; review it after the first week |
If you burn through your memory within a day, restarting more often is more effective than buying a bigger plan.
bEnableInvaderEnemy: the accelerator of the leak
The setting bEnableInvaderEnemy is the switch for hostile invaders and raids on your base, and it is closely tied to how fast the leak grows. Every raid spawns a group of enemies into the world, has them fight and then clears them away again. Every one of those cycles is a chance for the process to hold on to something it should have released.
Flip that switch off and memory use grows more gently. Be honest about what you give up: your base will never be attacked again. Defensive walls and combat Pals on guard duty lose their purpose, and the thrill of coming home to a base under siege disappears. For a group that mainly builds, that is no loss; for a group that plays precisely for that threat, it very much is. Since the Tower of Mercy update in early 2026 you can also scale raid difficulty, which makes a decent middle ground.
How to change the setting safely
- Shut the server down completely. Edit the file while it is running and your changes get overwritten on restart.
- Open
PalWorldSettings.ini, which on a Linux server lives inPal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/, and findbEnableInvaderEnemy. - Flip the value, save, and only then start the server again.
If that file does not exist yet, or you want to know what the other settings do, the full walkthrough is in our article on PalWorldSettings.ini and the settings that genuinely matter. If the server is completely new territory, our guide on how to host your own Palworld server covers the basics.
Which plan do you need at MC-Node?
Because the leak is manageable with a restart schedule, you do not need to buy big just to escape it. A regular group of friends will be fine with the bottom half of this list. Our Palworld hosting at MC-Node runs on a flat EUR 1.50 per GB of RAM, always with 1.25 GB of NVMe storage per GB of memory.
| Plan | RAM | NVMe | Per month | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jolthog | 4 GB | 5 GB | EUR 6.00 | Just for a try-out |
| Gumoss | 8 GB | 10 GB | EUR 12.00 | 4 to 6 players, no headroom |
| Vixy | 12 GB | 15 GB | EUR 18.00 | Small group with breathing room |
| Depresso | 16 GB | 20 GB | EUR 24.00 | Official advice; 4 to 16 players |
| Fuddler | 20 GB | 25 GB | EUR 30.00 | Bigger group or mods |
| Teafant | 24 GB | 30 GB | EUR 36.00 | Heading towards 32 players |
| Killamari | 28 GB | 35 GB | EUR 42.00 | Heavily modded worlds |
| Mau | 32 GB | 40 GB | EUR 48.00 | Large modded servers |
For this particular topic the scheduled task in the Pterodactyl panel matters most: it lets you set that nightly restart up in a couple of minutes. Automatic backups are included as standard, which is welcome given that your save file is the one thing you truly cannot afford to lose. Beyond that: NVMe SSD, DDoS protection from PletX and a choice of four locations, namely our own hardware in Previder PDC2 in Hengelo, plus Frankfurt, Warsaw and North America. We have been doing this since 2019, with over 10,000 servers deployed and 500+ customer reviews. More practical hosting tips for Palworld are collected in a separate article.
What a restart schedule will not fix
A dedicated server supports 32 players at most, and above roughly 24 players you will get the occasional stutter regardless. That is a game engine limit, not a hardware one and not the leak: restarting does nothing about it, and neither does a bigger plan. What does help on a full server is covered in running Palworld with 20 players or more.
Frequently asked questions
How much memory does a Palworld server leak per day? It varies from server to server, but a realistic example is a server for four players running at 5 GB on day one and pushing 8 GB a week later. The rate is tied to your player count and to whether raids are enabled through bEnableInvaderEnemy.
Can I switch the memory leak off with a setting? No. There is no complete fix among the roughly 119 settings in PalWorldSettings.ini. Turning off bEnableInvaderEnemy slows the leak noticeably, but does not stop it. A scheduled restart every 6 to 12 hours is the only approach that truly resets memory.
Is 16 GB enough for a Palworld server? Yes, 16 GB is Pocketpair's official advice and sits safely for 4 to 16 players. With us that is the Depresso plan at EUR 24.00 per month. Even on 16 GB a daily restart remains sensible, because the leak does not vanish just because there is more room.
Do I lose progress during an automatic restart? Palworld saves the world during a clean restart, so you lose the last few minutes at most. That is why you schedule it at a quiet moment, 5am for example, when nobody is online.
What do I give up by turning off bEnableInvaderEnemy? Your base will never be attacked by hostile invaders again, and defensive structures and combat Pals on guard duty lose their purpose. If you want to keep raids, the Tower of Mercy update in early 2026 lets you scale their difficulty instead.