Minecraft server requirements
Sizing a Minecraft server is not just adding up players: RAM scales with player count, mod load and how much of the world has already been explored, while CPU mostly responds to how many chunks the server simulates per second. The part most people underestimate is view distance, a number that looks small but scales in area, not in a straight line.
A "medium" world weighs 3.5 GB at the base plus 0.35 GB per connected player; this is the most common friends-server scenario.
Heavy mods alone add 5 GB of RAM and 2 extra CPU cores; a pre-generated world starts at 30 GB before even counting players.
The (2d+1)² formula makes load grow by area: doubling the radius does not double the server's work, it nearly quadruples it.
Because the world is what grows most on disk, and it grows as players explore, not from the player count itself. A fresh world is a few MB; a heavily explored world, or one pregenerated over a large radius with tools like Chunky, can take tens of GB. That is why the tool asks for the world scope and shows that value separately from total storage.
Because view distance defines a radius, and the number of loaded chunks grows by area, (2d+1)², not linearly; doubling the radius multiplies the loaded area by nearly 4.
Not directly: there is no separate field for it, its effect is folded into the chosen world scope. A server with a very high view-distance can need more real RAM than the estimate shows.
Java 25. The 26.1 update from March 2026 raised the required minimum from Java 21 to Java 25; servers on older Java versions fail to start.
Total storage reserves 1.5 times the world's size, specifically to cover backups and growth, plus a fixed amount for mods and base server files; a 30 GB pre-generated world already pushes the storage floor well past that.
A starting estimate, not an official requirement. World size depends heavily on how much is explored or pregenerated; total storage already includes headroom for backups, mods/plugins and server files. Heavy mods and plugins can need more. Always monitor real usage and adjust.
The estimate is computed locally in the browser; nothing is sent to servers.