Factorio Server Hardware Requirements
"What specs do I actually need to run a 24/7 Factorio server?" is one of the most common questions from people moving off a player-hosted game onto a dedicated box. The short answer surprises most newcomers: a Factorio dedicated server is very light on hardware compared to most games, and the spec that matters is not the one most people shop for. This guide breaks down what the headless server really needs for CPU, RAM, storage, and network, and explains why single-thread CPU speed and UPS decide performance more than core count or player count.
The one-line summary: Factorio simulates the whole factory on a single thread. A fast CPU core beats many slow cores every time, RAM scales with how big your factory gets (not how many cores you have), and adding players costs almost nothing compared to adding more factory.
CPU: Single-Thread Clock Speed Is King
Factorio's game simulation runs the entire factory, every belt, inserter, assembler, train, and circuit, inside one thread. The engine does use extra threads for some preparation work, but the core tick that advances the world is single-threaded and deterministic (that determinism is also why every client must stay in sync). The practical consequence:
- More cores do not speed up your factory. A 16-core server is no faster at simulating one base than a 4-core server with the same per-core clock.
- A high single-thread clock does. A modern CPU with strong single-core performance lets a larger factory run before the simulation falls behind.
- You only really need one fast core for the simulation itself, plus a little headroom for the operating system, autosave compression, and network handling.
UPS: The Metric That Actually Measures Server Health
Factorio targets 60 updates per second (UPS), which is one simulation tick every 16.67 milliseconds. As long as the server holds 60 UPS, the game runs at full real-time speed for everyone. When the factory grows complex enough that the CPU cannot finish a tick in 16.67 ms, UPS drops below 60 and the whole game slows down for all connected players at once, because everyone is locked to the same simulation.
This is the number to watch, not CPU percentage. A server can show modest CPU use and still drop UPS if a single tick occasionally overruns. The official Tutorial: Diagnosing performance issues on the Factorio Wiki explains how to read the in-game timing overlay (press the debug key and enable show-time-usage) to find which part of the tick is the bottleneck.
RAM: Scales With Factory Size, Not Player Count
A headless server does not load graphics, sounds, or sprites, so it needs far less memory than a full game client. Rough working figures, consistent with long-running threads on the Factorio Forums:
| Factory stage | Practical RAM |
|---|---|
| Bare minimum to boot a tiny map | ~1 GB (technically runs, fine for a small early-game world) |
| Small group, early-to-mid game | 2 GB comfortably covers most factories |
| Large base or Space Age multi-planet save | 4 GB and up |
| Sprawling megabase | 4-8 GB, mostly driven by entity count and map size |
What does not drive memory much is the number of connected players. Adding a friend to the server costs a small amount of network state, not the gigabytes that adding another thousand assemblers would. If your server feels slow, the cause is almost always CPU (a dropping UPS), not RAM. RAM exhaustion shows up as crashes or refusal to load a large save, not as a gradual slowdown.
Storage and Network
- Disk: The game install plus a save folder is small (a few GB total). What matters is write speed during autosaves. On a busy server, autosave can briefly stutter the simulation while the save file is written, so an SSD or NVMe drive keeps that pause short. Keep several rotating autosave slots so a bad save never costs you the world.
- Network: Factorio multiplayer is bandwidth-light because only player inputs travel over the wire, not the full game state. A handful of players use a few hundred kbps. What players feel is latency and packet loss, so a stable connection matters more than raw throughput. The default port is UDP 34197.
"Is a Cheap Mini PC Enough for a 24/7 Server?"
For a small group on an early-to-mid game factory, yes. A low-cost mini PC or a small VPS with one fast core and 2 to 4 GB of RAM will happily host a 24/7 dedicated server for friends. The questions to ask before buying one are about single-core performance, not core count or total RAM:
- What is the CPU's single-thread benchmark score? Higher is better, and it directly sets the megabase ceiling.
- Is there a quiet, low-power thermal envelope that can run continuously without throttling? Sustained clock matters more than a high turbo boost it cannot hold.
- Is storage an SSD rather than an old mechanical drive? This keeps autosave pauses short.
A Steam Deck, an old laptop, or a Raspberry-class board can also run the headless server, with the caveat that low-clock ARM and mobile chips will hit the UPS wall on a smaller factory than a modern desktop core. They are fine for a casual save and a poor choice for a megabase.
Quick Sizing Cheat Sheet
| Use case | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|
| 2-4 friends, vanilla early/mid game | 1 fast modern core | 2 GB |
| Larger group or moderate mods / Space Age | 1-2 fast cores | 4 GB |
| Megabase, heavy circuit logic, big train networks | The fastest single-core clock you can get | 4-8 GB |
Related Reading
- How to host a Factorio headless server
- Auto-pause and persistent 24/7 factories
- Fixing multiplayer desyncs
- Space platform and UPS optimization
- Official: Factorio Wiki - Diagnosing performance issues
Skip the Hardware Math with Supercraft
Supercraft runs Factorio dedicated servers on nodes chosen for high single-thread clock speed, the spec that actually moves UPS, with NVMe storage for fast autosaves and tuned autosave slots. You pick a plan and play, no mini-PC sourcing, no thermal throttling, no port forwarding.