Optimize Your Minecraft Server Performance
The 8 essential settings to reduce lag on your Minecraft server and improve TPS without changing hardware.
Understanding TPS
A Minecraft server runs at 20 ticks per second (TPS). If this number drops, you feel "server lag": mobs freeze, blocks break with delay, etc. The goal is to maintain stable 20 TPS.
1. Reduce view-distance
Set view-distance to 6 or 8 in server.properties. This is the setting with the most impact.
2. Enable simulation-distance
On Paper, set simulation-distance to 4. Entities outside this zone are frozen.
3. Limit entities
In spigot.yml, reduce the limits for monsters (monsters: 50), animals (animals: 8), and ground items (items: 8).
4. Disable uncontrolled mob farms
Use /lagg clear (LaggRemover plugin) to periodically clean up unnamed entities.
5. Pre-generate the world
With Chunky, pre-generate a radius of 5000 blocks around spawn. This avoids on-the-fly generation that heavily taxes the CPU.
6. Use Paper instead of Spigot
Paper includes dozens of free native optimizations. It's our default server.
7. Adjust allocated RAM
Too much RAM can be counterproductive (GC pauses). For a 10-player server, 2 to 4 GB is enough. Don't over-allocate.
8. Monitor with Spark
The Spark plugin lets you precisely identify which plugin or action is consuming CPU.
Check your TPS
Type /tps in-game (with EssentialsX or Paper). Goal: stable 20.0. Below 18, take action.