Which Palworld server plan suits your group? 4 to 32 GB
The safe default advice is 16 GB of RAM, because that is what Pocketpair officially recommends for a dedicated Palworld server. A group of 4 to 6 players will run on 8 GB too, but with no headroom: Pocketpair itself flags that configuration as crash-prone. For 4 to 16 players you are safe on 16 GB, and large or modded servers want 32 GB.
Below is where that memory actually goes, and where a bigger plan gets you nothing.
What does more RAM actually buy you?
Three things fill up a Palworld server's memory: how many players are online at once, how much has been built, and how many Pals are working. That last one gets forgotten constantly. A Pal chopping wood at a base with nobody nearby still costs memory and processing time. Four players with two full bases each are heavier than eight players sharing one small camp.
There is a reason Pocketpair labels the 8 GB configuration crash-prone: nothing is left over for the peaks, such as a raid kicking off or four players loading in at once after an update. The full trade-off by group size is covered in how much RAM your Palworld server needs.
So pick your plan for the world two months from now, not for today's group. Players rarely get added; bases almost always do.
Where does a bigger plan not help at all?
Two things you cannot solve with money, and it is fairer to say so up front.
The first is the memory leak. The Palworld server process demonstrably climbs in memory usage the longer it runs, and adding more RAM alongside it just means it keeps climbing: it simply takes longer to hit the ceiling. The approach that works is a scheduled automatic restart, every 6 to 12 hours, and how to set that up is covered in our explanation of the Palworld memory leak.
The second is the player ceiling. A dedicated server supports a maximum of 32 players, and above roughly 24 players you get the occasional stutter no matter what. That is a limit of the game engine, not of the hardware. Move from 24 to 32 GB hoping those stutters disappear and you are buying something that is not for sale. If you want to know exactly what you are looking at when it stutters, read our guide to what TPS, MSPT, FPS and ping mean.
And keep an eye on the processor: the official documentation asks for four cores or more, but in practice clock speed and per-core performance weigh heavier than core count.
Which MC-Node plan suits your group?
Our eight Palworld plans run from 4 to 32 GB of RAM. The price is a flat EUR 1.50 per GB, and storage scales along at 1.25 GB of NVMe per GB of RAM. That means you can work out an upgrade in advance: every 4 GB step costs EUR 6.00 more per month, wherever you are on the ladder.
| Plan | RAM | NVMe | Per month | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jolthog | 4 GB | 5 GB | EUR 6.00 | Just for a trial run, below the Pocketpair recommendation |
| Gumoss | 8 GB | 10 GB | EUR 12.00 | 4 to 6 players, no headroom |
| Vixy | 12 GB | 15 GB | EUR 18.00 | Small group wanting room above 8 GB |
| Depresso | 16 GB | 20 GB | EUR 24.00 | 4 to 16 players, the official recommendation |
| Fuddler | 20 GB | 25 GB | EUR 30.00 | Busy world, lots of Pals at work |
| Teafant | 24 GB | 30 GB | EUR 36.00 | Community server heading for 24 players |
| Killamari | 28 GB | 35 GB | EUR 42.00 | Large server running mods |
| Mau | 32 GB | 40 GB | EUR 48.00 | Heading for 32 players or a heavily modded world |
Honestly: if you play with three friends, you do not need 32 GB. Gumoss handles that, and the EUR 36.00 per month difference to Mau buys you no performance you will ever notice. Torn between two plans and playing with four or more people? Take the bigger one.
At MC-Node Palworld hosting every plan comes with the same standard package, and four parts of it genuinely matter for Palworld. The scheduled tasks in the Pterodactyl panel, which let you click that 6 to 12 hour restart into place in a minute without scripts or cron jobs; that is your only real answer to the memory leak. Automatic backups, because one save file contains everything your group has ever built. Four locations for low ping (your delay to the server): our own Previder PDC2 data centre in Hengelo, plus Frankfurt, Warsaw and North America. And DDoS protection from PletX, because a public Palworld server is a visible target.
How do you know your plan is too tight?
You do not have to guess. Three signals almost always point at memory:
- The server does not crash at random, but consistently after roughly the same number of hours or days of uptime. That is the leak hitting the ceiling.
- It goes wrong at peak moments: a raid starting, or players loading in together at a large base.
- It got worse without any players joining. That means things got built, not connected.
If the stuttering is instead steady and happens with few players online, memory is probably not your problem and you should look at the processor or your settings first.
Do crossplay or mods change your choice?
Crossplay does not change your plan. Since version 0.5.0 of 19 March 2025, Steam on PC, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Mac all play together in the same world: every platform connects to the same server and shares one persistent world. An Xbox player costs your server no more memory than a PC player does.
Mods do change your choice. They load extra assets and logic into memory, so a modded world starts at 32 GB rather than 16 GB. On top of that, mods are PC-only: Xbox, Game Pass (a different WinGDK build) and PlayStation 5 cannot load PAK mods or PalSchema, because consoles cannot side-load archives or DLL files. If you play with a mixed group, you either keep the server vanilla or stick to cosmetic mods that PC players install themselves. In that second case you do not need those 32 GB.
How do you keep a smaller plan stable anyway?
The difference between an 8 GB server that falls over every week and an 8 GB server nobody has to think about is maintenance. Work in this order:
- Shut the server down before you edit anything. Change the settings file while the server is running and your changes get overwritten on restart. This is by far the most common mistake.
- Copy
DefaultPalWorldSettings.iniintoPal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/, rename the copy toPalWorldSettings.iniand edit that copy. It holds roughly 119 settings. - Consider turning
bEnableInvaderEnemyoff. That switch for hostile invaders is closely tied to how fast the memory leak grows. Not a cure, but noticeable in the pace. - Schedule an automatic restart, every 6 to 12 hours, at a time when nobody is playing.
- Check that your backups are running and that you can restore one. A save file you have never tested is not a backup.
The usual quality-of-life tweaks on private servers cost you no extra memory: ExpRate at 2 to 3, PalEggDefaultHatchingTime at 5 to 10 instead of the default 72 hours, DeathPenalty at None and WorkSpeedRate at 1.5. Setting the server up for the first time? Start with our guide to how to host your own Palworld server; for the rest of the tuning, our Palworld hosting tips are ready and waiting.
The choice in three lines
- Small group building modestly: 8 GB is the starting point, though 4 to 6 players run on it with no headroom. 4 GB exists for trying Palworld out.
- Playing with four to sixteen people, or not sure yet: take 16 GB and forget about it for a year.
- Want a community server or a modded world: start at 32 GB, but do not count on smooth play above 24 players.
Frequently asked questions
Which Palworld plan do I need for four players? Four players fit on Gumoss with 8 GB, but 4 to 6 players run on it with no headroom and Pocketpair itself flags 8 GB as crash-prone. If you want that headroom, Depresso with 16 GB at EUR 24.00 per month is the official recommendation.
Is 4 GB enough for a Palworld server? Not for a real group. Pocketpair officially recommends 16 GB and flags even 8 GB as crash-prone, so Jolthog with 4 GB at EUR 6.00 per month is mainly there for trying Palworld out. If you start there anyway, definitely schedule a daily restart.
What does it cost to scale up later? The price is a flat EUR 1.50 per GB of RAM, on every plan. Going from Gumoss with 8 GB to Depresso with 16 GB is therefore EUR 12.00 more per month, and every 4 GB step costs EUR 6.00. Your save file comes with you.
Do I need 32 GB for 32 players? A dedicated server supports a maximum of 32 players, and Mau with 32 GB is the plan for it. Just do not expect miracles: above roughly 24 players you get the occasional stutter regardless, and that is a limit of the game engine, not of the hardware.
Does a bigger plan fix the memory leak? No. The server process's memory usage climbs the longer the server runs, and more RAM only extends the time before you hit the ceiling. A scheduled restart every 6 to 12 hours empties the memory out.