"How much RAM does a 7 Days to Die server need?" gets a different number from every host that answers it, and the reason is simple: The Fun Pimps have never published one. This article gives you the figures that do exist, with their sources, and the one we measured ourselves. It names the settings the server's own config file says drive memory and performance. It is plain about what nobody has measured, and it ends with how we size our plans.
The game's requirements, not the server's. Steam's store page for 7 Days to Die lists a Linux minimum of a "2.8 Ghz Quad Core CPU", "8 GB RAM" and "15 GB available space", with a 3.2 GHz quad core and 12 GB recommended. Those are for playing the game. The same page adds: "Running the Dedicated Server and Client on the same computer will double ram requirements." That sentence is the closest The Fun Pimps come to a server figure, and it tells you only that the server is not free to run alongside the game.
Our own idle measurement. On 4 November 2026 we started a V3.4.0 (b10) dedicated server on the hand-made Navezgane map, with nobody connected. It used about 2 GB of RAM once it was up. That is one data point: one map, no players, no mods, freshly started. It is a floor, not a recommendation.
Disk, which people forget. The Linux server's game files are 17.8 GB on disk according to Steam's manifest. Our install measured 17.4 GB. That is before any saves, generated worlds or backups.
That is the whole published record. Every other number you will find, from "4 GB minimum" to 32 GB for a modded server, is a host's own recommendation. Hosts disagree by a factor of several, and none of them shows its working.
What the config file says drives load
The server's serverconfig.xml carries comments from the developers, and a few of them are about exactly this. The wording below is the A20-era wording that is still in the file. The V3 copy is quoted by the community wiki at wiki.7d2d.net, which says it rebuilt its page from the shipped V3.2.0 file and re-checked it against V3.4.0.
| Setting | Default | What the file says |
|---|
MaxSpawnedZombies | 64 | "Changing this setting can have a huge impact on performance". The V3 copy adds that it is "scaled based on use case (x1.9 blood moons, x2.1 sleepers)" |
MaxSpawnedAnimals | 50 | Animals alive at once |
ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance | 12 (range 6–12) | "High impact on memory usage and performance" |
DynamicMeshMaxItemCache | 3 | "higher values use more RAM" |
TwitchBloodMoonAllowed | false | "could cause server lag" |
Two things follow from that table. First, the zombie cap is the setting the developers single out. The multipliers in the V3 comment mean a blood moon can ask for well beyond the everyday cap, and that is the moment a server is most likely to struggle. Second, view distance is the setting they single out for memory. It caps how far every connected player may see, and the file ties it directly to memory.
World size
A generated (RWG) world comes in three officially supported sizes. The V3 file's comment, as quoted by the community wiki, reads: "Officially supported sizes are between 6144 and 10240 and must be a multiple of 2048, e.g. 6144, 8192, 10240." The hand-made Navezgane map and the shipped pregenerated maps are the other options.
How much more memory a 10K world needs than a 6K one, and how long it takes to generate, has not been published by The Fun Pimps. Vendor figures for it disagree by a factor of two or more. We are not going to add another guess. We plan to measure generation time and peak memory at each size on our own hardware, and this section will carry those numbers, with the build they were taken on, when we have them.
What nobody has measured
To be exact about the gaps:
- Memory per connected player. Not published, by anyone we could find.
- Memory by world size, idle or populated, and RWG generation time and peak memory at 6K, 8K and 10K.
- How much an overhaul mod adds. Overhauls change a great deal of the game, and nobody publishes a figure.
- CPU threading. The game's requirements say "Quad Core". The server's actual thread use is not documented.
Blood moon lag
The most common performance complaint in community threads is lag and rubber-banding on blood moon nights, often on long-running worlds ("Day 69, 6k Map", as one thread title puts it). We have no measurements of our own for it yet. What the file tells you is where to look: MaxSpawnedZombies and its blood-moon multiplier, ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance, and the blood moon horde size, which since V3.0 is part of the Sandbox Code rather than a separate setting. See SandboxCode explained.
If blood moons hurt, lower MaxSpawnedZombies or the view-distance cap a step at a time, restart, and compare the next blood moon. Change one thing per night so you know which one helped.
How we size the plans
Our three 7 Days to Die plans are Scout with 6 GB, Outpost with 10 GB and Fortress with 16 GB, with 40, 60 and 80 GB of disk. All three have 8 player slots. That is the count The Fun Pimps support, and the maximum crossplay allows, so we keep it the same on every rung. More RAM does not buy more players. It buys room for the things the file and the gaps above point at:
- Scout, 6 GB. Three times our measured idle figure. It is the plan we built for a vanilla group on Navezgane or a pregenerated map with the default zombie cap.
- Outpost, 10 GB. For a larger generated world, a raised zombie cap, or a group that plays long into a world's life.
- Fortress, 16 GB. The rung for overhaul mods, a 10K world, or the most room we sell for people who would rather not think about it.
The disk steps matter too. The game files alone take about 17.4 GB; the rest is for your worlds, mods and logs.
We won't tell you that Fortress makes blood moons smooth, because we haven't measured it and nobody else has shown it. What we can say is this. Upgrading keeps your world and settings. Backups, a file manager and SFTP come with every plan. The plans and resources guide shows what each plan includes, and the 7 Days to Die hosting page has them side by side.
If you are sizing your own machine
Start from the store page's warning that a server and the game on one PC double the RAM requirement. Remember that our idle Navezgane server sat at 2 GB before anyone joined. Leave several times that for players, a generated world and a blood moon. The setup guide covers the rest of a Linux install.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much RAM does a 7 Days to Die dedicated server need?
The Fun Pimps publish no server figure. Steam lists 8 GB minimum and 12 GB recommended for the game, and warns that running the server and the game on one computer doubles that. Our idle V3.4.0 server on Navezgane used about 2 GB.
Does more RAM let more players join?
No. The player cap is ServerMaxPlayerCount. The Fun Pimps support 8 and crossplay requires 8 or fewer, which is why every Connect plan has 8 slots.
The config file singles out MaxSpawnedZombies ("a huge impact on performance") and ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance ("High impact on memory usage and performance").
Does a 10K world need more RAM than a 6K one?
It is a bigger world to hold, but nobody has published how much more, or how long a 10K world takes to generate. We will publish our own measurements when we have them.
Which Connect plan should I pick?
Scout (6 GB) for a vanilla group on a standard map. Outpost (10 GB) for a bigger generated world or more zombies. Fortress (16 GB) for overhaul mods or a 10K world. All three have 8 slots, and upgrading keeps your world.