Fits your load
VPS Growth
4 vCPU, 8 GB DDR5, 80 GB NVMe, 6 TB traffic
₹3,560$37.49/mo
Deploy GrowthAbout GrowthTeam Fortress 2 server requirements
What a Team Fortress 2 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
- 4 coresSingle-thread heavy: clock speed matters more than core count.
- Memory
- 6 GB
- NVMe storage
- 15 GB
- Traffic per month
- 109 GB
- Busiest upload
- under 1 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
- 8 GB more memory, 120 GB more NVMe.
- Dedicated cores: your server never waits for a core another customer is using.
- Headroom for busy evenings, more players, and the mods and updates you add later.
By player count. Without plugins (sourcemod); 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 3 cores | 4 GB | 15 GB | 54 GB | VPS Starter | VDS FusionCore |
| 18 | 3 cores | 5 GB | 15 GB | 82 GB | VPS Starter | VDS FusionCore |
| 24 | 4 cores | 6 GB | 15 GB | 109 GB | VPS Growth | VDS FusionCore |
| 32 | 5 cores | 7.5 GB | 15 GB | 145 GB | VDS OmniCore | VDS PrimeCore |
| 64 | 8 cores | 13 GB | 15 GB | 290 GB | VDS PrimeCore | VDS TitanCore |
| 100 | 11 cores | 19 GB | 15 GB | 454 GB | VDS TitanCore | VDS UltraCore |
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
CPU: 4+ cores (2.0GHz or higher); RAM: 6GB minimum; Storage: 10GB available space
Dedicated servers often run on ports 27000 to 27050, but mainly port 27015; standard servers support up to 24 players by default
How the model is built
- Memory
- 2 GB plus 170 MB per player. Tuned so the default 24-player server lands at about 6 GB, matching the '6GB minimum' figure a widely used hosting guide gives for a TF2 dedicated server (source 2). Base covers the idle engine and OS overhead; the per-player slope accounts for game state, entities, and SourceMod plugin memory.
- CPU
- 2 cores, one more for every 10 players. Tuned so the default 24-player server needs 4 cores, matching source 2's '4+ cores (2.0GHz or higher)' recommendation. Above the official 24-player default, core need is extrapolated since Valve's own docs only give the software/OS requirements, not hardware sizing.
- Disk
- 10 GB for the server plus 5 GB for saves and backups. Source 2 states '10GB available space' for the server install. Added growth budget covers logs, SourceTV (STV) demo recordings, and custom maps/plugins on an active community server. TF2's assets are much smaller than modern engines, so SSD is helpful but not required.
- Bandwidth
- 40 kbit/s of upload per player. A real-world measurement on a full 24-player TF2 server (source 4) found the server sending about 16 kbps to each connected client, within a commonly reported 20-70 kbps per-player range for Source dedicated servers. 40 kbps per player is chosen as a defensible middle of that observed range to leave headroom for voice chat and higher tickrate/updaterate settings; treat as upload from the server.
- Plugins (SourceMod)
- Memory times 1.2 for some and 1.5 for heavy; a heavy load also adds a core.
Valve's official TF2 wiki documents software requirements and ports but gives no CPU/RAM/disk numbers, so the hardware model here leans on a widely used third-party hosting guide (IBRACORP) for its one concrete anchor. Bandwidth-per-player estimates found across TF2 server admin communities vary by roughly 10x (16 to 150 kbps), so the bandwidth figure is a derived middle estimate, not a single authoritative number. Modded (SourceMod) servers vary widely depending on the plugins installed.
Before you set it up. The ports it listens on and what the guides say drives its load.
Ports
| Port | Protocol | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 27015 | UDP | game traffic |
| 27015 | TCP | RCON |
| 27020 | UDP | SourceTV (STV) |
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 protects Team Fortress 2 servers.
What drives the load
- TF2's server logic is old Source engine code that leans on a single thread, so a faster CPU clock helps more than extra cores.
- The official default player cap is 24; going higher (up to 100) needs the unsupported -unrestricted_maxplayers launch flag added in the July 2023 patch and is not guaranteed stable.
- SourceTV (STV) demo recording and SourceMod plugins are the main things that push RAM and disk use above the bare-minimum figures.
- Budget extra bandwidth if voice chat is enabled or if running a higher tickrate/updaterate than the Source engine defaults.
Team Fortress 2 server questions
How much RAM does a Team Fortress 2 server need?
About 4 GB for 12 players and 19 GB for 100, before plugins (sourcemod). Tuned so the default 24-player server lands at about 6 GB, matching the '6GB minimum' figure a widely used hosting guide gives for a TF2 dedicated server (source 2). Base covers the idle engine and OS overhead; the per-player slope accounts for game state, entities, and SourceMod plugin memory.
How many CPU cores does a Team Fortress 2 server need?
3 for 12 players, 11 for 100. The server is single-thread heavy, so the clock speed of one core matters more than how many cores it has. Tuned so the default 24-player server needs 4 cores, matching source 2's '4+ cores (2.0GHz or higher)' recommendation. Above the official 24-player default, core need is extrapolated since Valve's own docs only give the software/OS requirements, not hardware sizing.
How much bandwidth does a Team Fortress 2 server use?
About 40 kbit/s of upload per connected player, so under 1 Mbit/s with 24 players online and about 109 GB a month if 35% of that cap is online on average. A real-world measurement on a full 24-player TF2 server (source 4) found the server sending about 16 kbps to each connected client, within a commonly reported 20-70 kbps per-player range for Source dedicated servers. 40 kbps per player is chosen as a defensible middle of that observed range to leave headroom for voice chat and higher tickrate/updaterate settings; treat as upload from the server.
Which Clouduxe plan should I pick for Team Fortress 2?
For 24 players, VPS Growth 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 Team Fortress 2 on VPS Growth.
Sized for 24 players, with DDoS protection included. Or talk to us about a bigger server.