FiveM server requirements
How much RAM, CPU and storage a FiveM server really needs, from a 16-slot freeroam server to a 128-slot roleplay city.
Cfx.re's official minimum is vague on purpose: a FiveM server can run on 2 GB of RAM and a single core, or eat 16 GB and four cores. The difference is not the player count but what you load: frameworks, scripts, MLOs and vehicle packs. This guide gives you numbers you can plan with, based on what we see across thousands of servers.
What actually uses resources
FiveM's server process (FXServer) is light by itself: an empty server idles at around 300 MB of RAM and almost no CPU. Everything on top of it is yours. A framework such as ESX or QBCore adds 300 to 600 MB. Every resource adds its own share: a small script a few megabytes, a vehicle pack with 50 cars hundreds of megabytes, a large MLO or map more.
CPU works differently. FXServer runs the game logic on one main thread, so a fast single core matters more than many slow ones. Badly written scripts that loop every frame are the usual reason a server with few players still sits at 100% on one core. A high-clock AMD Ryzen core at 5 GHz handles roughly twice as many of those loops as an old Xeon core at 2.4 GHz.
RAM: a sizing table that holds up
Vanilla or vMenu freeroam, up to 32 players and a handful of scripts: 2 to 3 GB. ESX or QBCore with the default jobs, 32 to 48 players and 50 to 80 resources: 4 to 6 GB. A full roleplay city with 100 to 150 resources, custom cars, MLOs and 64 players: 8 GB, with 12 GB if you want headroom for peaks. 128 slots with hundreds of resources, large vehicle packs and heavy inventories: 16 GB or more.
Two rules of thumb. First, RAM use grows with resources, not with players; doubling the slot count on the same resources adds a few hundred megabytes at most. Second, plan for 30% headroom: a server that idles at 90% of its RAM will be killed by the panel when a restart or a resource reload spikes it.
CPU: one fast core, then the rest
For up to 48 players one fast core is enough, as long as your scripts are clean. OneSync Infinity, which you need beyond 32 players, spreads some work over additional cores: give a 64-slot server two cores and a 128-slot server three to four. More cores do not make a slow script faster; they only stop it from starving the other threads.
Clock speed is the number to look at when you compare hosts. Two servers with "4 vCPU" can differ by a factor of two in real FiveM performance. If a host does not publish the CPU model, assume it is an older one.
Storage and bandwidth
A fresh FXServer with a framework is under 2 GB. A finished roleplay city with vehicle packs, MLOs and clothing packs lands between 10 and 30 GB, plus the MySQL database and backups. Use NVMe storage: resource loading on restart and database queries are disk-bound, and a server on a spinning disk restarts noticeably slower.
Bandwidth is rarely the limit. A 64-slot server uses around 20 to 40 Mbit/s at peak; what matters more is that the connection is DDoS-protected, because a public FiveM server gets attacked, usually within its first month.
Database and txAdmin
Frameworks store players, inventories and vehicles in MySQL (MariaDB). Count 200 to 500 MB of RAM for the database on a mid-sized server, and put it on the same machine or in the same datacenter: a database on the other side of the internet adds latency to every script that queries it, which players feel as lag when they open an inventory.
txAdmin, the FiveM web panel, needs almost nothing: a few hundred megabytes and a port (40120 by default). It is bundled with FXServer, so there is nothing extra to install.
Picking a plan
Start one size smaller than you think and watch the panel's resource graph for a week. RAM you do not use is money wasted every month, and upgrading a game server plan takes a minute. The signals that you need the next size: RAM above 80% for more than a few hours a day, or the main thread above 90% while players are online.
At VibeGAMES the FiveM plans run from 2 GB to 32 GB on AMD Ryzen hardware with NVMe storage, DDoS protection and txAdmin, ESX, QBCore and Qbox installable in one click. Pick the plan by the table above, and upgrade from the panel when your city grows.
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