The Palworld dedicated server has known memory leak issues and can become sluggish after hours of continuous play. These optimizations keep your server responsive and prevent the crashes that frustrate your players.
Scheduled restarts
The most effective optimization. Palworld accumulates memory through entity tracking, dropped items and base calculations. A restart every 6 to 12 hours clears this buildup.
Set up a scheduled restart via the game panel under Schedules. Warn players 5 minutes in advance via a broadcast command or Discord webhook.
Settings that affect performance
| Setting | Impact | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| PalSpawnNumRate | More spawns = more entities to track | Keep at 1.0 or lower |
| BaseCampWorkerMaxNum | Each working Pal runs AI and pathfinding | 12 to 15 maximum |
| DropItemAliveMaxHours | Dropped items accumulate in memory | Set to 0.5 to 1.0 |
| bEnableInvaderEnemy | Raid events spawn many entities at once | Disable with limited RAM |
Hardware considerations
- RAM: 16 GB is the sweet spot. The server idles at 6 to 8 GB and climbs from there.
- CPU: a fast single-thread clock speed helps. Palworld's game logic is largely single-threaded.
- Storage: NVMe shortens save times. Saves happen automatically and can briefly freeze the server on slow storage.
Monitoring
Watch two metrics:
- RAM usage over time: if it climbs steadily without dropping, the server has a memory leak. Restart before it hits the limit.
- Save time: if auto-saves take more than 5 seconds, the world state is getting too large. Clean up abandoned bases and reduce item spawns.
Cleaning up abandoned bases
Abandoned bases with dozens of working Pals are the biggest performance drain. Each Pal runs its own AI loop and pathfinding. If the base owner has not logged in for weeks, those resources are wasted. Consider setting ExistPlayerAfterLogout to false so offline players' Pals stop consuming resources, or periodically remove clearly abandoned bases manually.
All optimizations are applicable on Palworld servers at HostValues. Scheduled restarts are built into the panel.
Why does my server lag after a few hours?
Memory leaks. The server does not fully release memory from despawned entities and processed events. Scheduled restarts are the standard solution; Pocketpair has improved this with patches but has not fully resolved it.
Should I disable raids for performance?
On servers with limited RAM (8 GB or less): yes. Raids spawn 20+ entities at once, causing lag spikes. On 16 GB+ servers, raids are not a problem.
