Fits your load
VPS Pro
6 vCPU, 12 GB DDR5, 120 GB NVMe, 8 TB traffic
₹5,340$56.49/mo
Deploy ProAbout ProSpace Engineers server requirements
What a Space Engineers server needs in CPU, memory, disk and bandwidth, by player count. Change the numbers for your own server; the sources are listed below.
What it needs
- CPU
- 3 coresSingle-thread heavy: clock speed matters more than core count.
- Memory
- 10 GB
- NVMe storage
- 30 GB
- Traffic per month
- 544 GB
- Busiest upload
- 4.8 Mbit/s
On Clouduxe
Room to grow
VDS FusionCore
4 dedicated cores, 16 GB DDR5, 200 GB NVMe, 10 TB traffic
₹9,940$104.49/mo
- 4 dedicated cores instead of 6 shared vCPU: the game's main thread gets cores no other customer uses.
- 4 GB more memory, 80 GB more NVMe.
- Headroom for busy evenings, more players, and the mods and updates you add later.
By player count. Without mods (steam workshop); each step up in the calculator adds memory, disk and sometimes a core.
| Players | CPU | Memory | NVMe | Traffic a month | Fits your load | Room to grow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 cores | 8 GB | 30 GB | 272 GB | VPS Growth | VDS FusionCore |
| 8 | 3 cores | 10 GB | 30 GB | 544 GB | VPS Pro | VDS FusionCore |
| 16 | 4 cores | 14 GB | 30 GB | 1.1 TB | VPS Elite | VDS FusionCore |
| 24 | 4 cores | 18 GB | 30 GB | 1.6 TB | VPS Max | VDS OmniCore |
| 32 | 5 cores | 22 GB | 30 GB | 2.2 TB | VDS OmniCore | VDS PrimeCore |
Traffic assumes 35% of the player cap online on average across the month; change it under Assumptions in the calculator.
Where the numbers come from. Published figures first, then how the calculator turns them into a model.
Published requirements
DS Minimum: CPU 3.2GHz, 3 logical cores; 6 GB RAM; 5 Mbps bandwidth (official Keen Software House dedicated server guide; not tied to a specific player count)
Dedicated Servers - Official Space Engineers site (Keen Software House)
DS Recommended: CPU 4.5GHz, 3 logical cores; 10 GB RAM; static IP if hosting publicly
Dedicated Servers - Official Space Engineers site (Keen Software House)
Recommended (Steam store, client): Processor: Intel Quad Core i7 @ 4.5 GHz or higher; Memory: 16 GB RAM; Storage: 35 GB; multiplayer recommends 5Mbit/s or more
How the model is built
- Memory
- 6 GB plus 500 MB per player. Base matches Keen Software House's own dedicated server minimum (6GB). Keen does not publish a per-player figure; the per-player increment is derived so the model lands on the official recommended 10GB around an 8-player session. The developer's own performance page states memory use is really driven by world complexity (number of grids/blocks/objects), not headcount, so treat this as an approximation.
- CPU
- 3 cores, one more for every 12 players. Keen's own minimum and recommended specs both call for '3 logical cores' and only raise clock speed (3.2GHz to 4.5GHz) between the two tiers, confirming single-thread/clock speed is what actually matters, not core count. Cores scale slowly with players here for that reason.
- Disk
- 15 GB for the server plus 15 GB for saves and backups, on SSD or NVMe. Keen does not publish a separate dedicated-server install size; the full client (which shares most of the same block/voxel assets) needs 35GB per Steam. 15/15 is an approximation until a large, long-lived world with many saved grids and asteroids grows the save file; SSD is recommended good practice for voxel/asteroid streaming, though not an explicit developer requirement.
- Bandwidth
- 600 kbit/s of upload per player. Keen states a dedicated server minimum of 5 Mbps and the Steam page separately recommends 5Mbit/s or more for multiplayer, but neither ties that figure to a specific player count. 600 kbps/player is calibrated so an 8-player session lands close to that stated ~5 Mbps floor.
- Mods (Steam Workshop)
- Memory times 1.25 for some and 1.6 for heavy; a heavy load also adds a core.
Keen Software House publishes clear minimum/recommended CPU and RAM figures for the dedicated server but does not scale them by player count; they explicitly say performance depends on world/grid complexity, not headcount alone. The player-indexed RAM/CPU model here is a reasonable approximation anchored to those two official data points, not a developer-published scaling table.
Before you set it up. The ports it listens on and what the guides say drives its load.
Ports
| Port | Protocol | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 27016 | UDP | game (default, configurable) |
Game server hosting: every game we size, the protection each one gets, and the plan for it.
DDoS protection is on every Clouduxe plan. How Prism handles game traffic.
What drives the load
- World/grid complexity drives CPU and RAM far more than player count. Keen's own performance guide says armor-only ships are cheap, but functional blocks, lights, physics collisions and explosions are expensive.
- Disable copy-paste in multiplayer. Keen explicitly names it as a common cause of server lag.
- There is no official hard player cap. The developer states the only real limit is your system's memory once world complexity grows large enough.
- An overloaded dedicated server shows up to players as rubber-banding (desync), not just low FPS, since simulation runs server-side.
Space Engineers server questions
How much RAM does a Space Engineers server need?
About 8 GB for 4 players and 22 GB for 32, before mods (steam workshop). Base matches Keen Software House's own dedicated server minimum (6GB). Keen does not publish a per-player figure; the per-player increment is derived so the model lands on the official recommended 10GB around an 8-player session. The developer's own performance page states memory use is really driven by world complexity (number of grids/blocks/objects), not headcount, so treat this as an approximation.
How many CPU cores does a Space Engineers server need?
3 for 4 players, 5 for 32. The server is single-thread heavy, so the clock speed of one core matters more than how many cores it has. Keen's own minimum and recommended specs both call for '3 logical cores' and only raise clock speed (3.2GHz to 4.5GHz) between the two tiers, confirming single-thread/clock speed is what actually matters, not core count. Cores scale slowly with players here for that reason.
How much bandwidth does a Space Engineers server use?
About 600 kbit/s of upload per connected player, so 4.8 Mbit/s with 8 players online and about 544 GB a month if 35% of that cap is online on average. Keen states a dedicated server minimum of 5 Mbps and the Steam page separately recommends 5Mbit/s or more for multiplayer, but neither ties that figure to a specific player count. 600 kbps/player is calibrated so an 8-player session lands close to that stated ~5 Mbps floor.
Which Clouduxe plan should I pick for Space Engineers?
For 8 players, VPS Pro fits the load and VDS FusionCore leaves room to grow. Every plan includes DDoS protection: 17 Tbps of upstream mitigation plus Clouduxe Prism on the server.
Other games. The same calculator, sized from each game's own documentation.
All calculatorsHost Space Engineers on VPS Pro.
Sized for 8 players, with DDoS protection included. Or talk to us about a bigger server.