7 Days to Die
Self-host or rent a 7 Days to Die server
Four questions about the practical side of running a server: your machine, when it can be on, and which of the work you want to do. Three kinds of thing appear on this page and they are kept apart — what the documentation states, what you tell us about your own machine, and what we make of the two together.
The published requirements cannot settle this by themselves
The 8 GB minimum and 12 GB recommended figures are the game's current published system requirements, covering the game with a client — they are not a dedicated-server-only hardware sizing table. So there is no published threshold a machine either clears or fails for the purpose of running a server, which means we cannot tell you your hardware is officially sufficient or officially insufficient. Nobody can, from these figures. That is why the first question below asks for your own assessment instead of quoting a number at you, and why your answer is labelled as yours throughout.
Four questions
All four are about operations rather than hardware specifications. “Not sure” is treated as unconfirmed throughout — never as a mark against self-hosting.
Your assessment, not ours. The published figures are for the game with a client, so they cannot answer this for you.
A server has to be running and reachable for anyone to join it.
The documented port and the settings in serverconfig.xml are yours to manage when you self-host.
The recurring half of self-hosting, as opposed to the one-off setup.
Answer all four to see a reading.
Documented server and configuration facts
These hold whoever runs the server. They are what you would be configuring yourself if you self-host, and what somebody else would be configuring if you do not.
- Current server configurationServer port
ServerPort defaults to 26900
The setting people outside your network connect through, and 26900 is what it arrives set to. It is a configurable value rather than a fixed one. We list the one port the current documentation gives for this setting and add nothing to it.
- Current server configurationPlayer slots
ServerMaxPlayerCount defaults to 8 concurrent players
A default, and worth reading as exactly that. It is the number a fresh server config comes with, not a limit the software imposes — the setting exists precisely because it is meant to be changed.
- Current server configurationServer view distance
ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance is documented as a performance-sensitive server setting
Worth knowing about because it is one of the settings you can turn down if a server struggles, and it costs you far less than reducing the player count or the world size. As with the Blood Moon setting, the documentation gives a direction rather than a measurement.
- Current published requirementOperating system
Windows 10 or newer, 64-bit
What the current store page lists. Anything else you may have read about other platforms is outside what this page documents, so we are not extending it.
- Current published requirementInternet connection
Broadband internet connection
Stated as a type of connection rather than a speed. No megabit figure is published, and one person's broadband is another person's struggle, so treat it as the floor it is.
Sources, last checked:
- Official 7 Days to Die Wiki — Serverconfig.xml — 29 September 2026
- 7 Days to Die on Steam — System requirements — 29 September 2026
The rest of the 7 Days to Die pages
- Server Requirements — the current published requirements and server configuration facts, with the scope of each spelled out.
- Server Planner — three questions and a workload reading, useful before you judge whether a machine suits what you have in mind.
What this page will not tell you
- That your machine is officially sufficient, or officially insufficient, for a dedicated server. No published figure describes a dedicated server's hardware, so that verdict is not available to us — the machine question is your assessment and stays labelled as yours.
- That a rented server is faster, more reliable or cheaper than your own machine. Nothing we hold compares them, so we do not.
- Which provider to use, or what any of this costs. No provider, price or affiliate link appears here.
- That the documentation recommends either option. It explains how to configure and run a server. Who should run it is our question, and the reading above is our guidance.