Ubuntu system requirements: minimum RAM, CPU and disk for Server and Desktop

Short answer: the Ubuntu system requirements depend on the edition. Server 24.04 LTS needs 1.5 GB of RAM and 5 GB of disk for an ISO install (1 GB and 4 GB for a cloud image); Canonical suggests 3 GB and 25 GB. Desktop 26.04 LTS asks for a 2 GHz dual-core CPU, 6 GB of RAM and 25 GB.

Sources, read on 21 October 2026: the system requirements page of the Ubuntu Server documentation (written for 24.04 LTS on amd64; it notes that other releases and architectures “might differ slightly”), the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release notes, Canonical’s desktop download page, which lists the 26.04.1 figures, and the Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 install tutorial, which asks for 25 GB of storage and an 8 GB USB stick but names no RAM or CPU figure; for a comfortable desktop on either release, plan on the 26.04 figures. Requirements are revised with new releases, so check those pages again before you buy hardware for a later one.

Which Ubuntu release are these numbers for?

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) gets five years of standard security maintenance, until 2029 per its release notes, and up to 10 years with Ubuntu Pro. It is still the release most server software documents first.
• Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) came out on 23 April 2026 and is supported until April 2031, per its release notes; the first point release, 26.04.1, followed in August 2026. It brings Linux 7.0, chrony as the default time service and sudo-rs as the default sudo.
• Interim releases (such as 26.10) get nine months of support and do not belong on a server.

The server minimums barely changed between the two LTS releases. The desktop figure did: Canonical’s current download page asks for 6 GB of RAM, more than many older laptops have. Checking the Linux version tells you which release a machine runs now, and upgrading Ubuntu covers moving from one LTS to the next.

Which CPU architectures does Ubuntu support?

There is no installer for 32-bit Intel or AMD (i386) in current releases; the Desktop download page offers only 64-bit Intel/AMD and 64-bit Arm. Some 32-bit libraries remain so that old programs can still run on an amd64 system, but you cannot install Ubuntu on a 32-bit x86 CPU.

Ubuntu 26.04 is also the first LTS with the opt-in amd64v3 variant (added in 25.10), built for the x86-64-v3 level (CPUs with AVX2 and FMA). The standard amd64 build stays the default and runs on older CPUs too. To see which levels your CPU supports:

uname -m                                          # x86_64 = amd64, aarch64 = arm64
dpkg --print-architecture                         # amd64, arm64 ... (Debian and Ubuntu)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --help | grep supported   # x86-64-v2 / v3 / v4 support

What does a real server need beyond the minimum?

The official figures say what installs and boots. A server also has to run its workload, keep a page cache and survive a traffic spike. The table below is our estimate for typical setups, not a Canonical figure; measure your own load with free -h and df -h after a week and adjust.

• Databases are fastest when the data you use often (the working set) fits in RAM. Size memory from that, not from the total database size; the PostgreSQL and MariaDB install guides show the settings that decide how much they take.
• Docker needs disk more than anything: images, build cache and container logs grow quietly, and 20 GB fills up sooner than you expect. See installing Docker on Ubuntu for capping logs from the start.
• Below 2 GB of RAM, a swap file turns a short memory spike into a slowdown instead of a killed process; adding swap takes two minutes.
• Builds (npm run build, compiling from source) often need more memory for a few minutes than the finished service needs all day.

Can Ubuntu run on less than the minimum?

Sometimes, with trade-offs. The two server rows already show where the line sits: an ISO install asks for more than a prepared cloud image, which runs in 1 GB. The 26.04 release notes describe the server requirements as scaling “with your specific use case”, which is the honest answer: the system itself needs little, and the rest is decided by what you run on it.

• A 1 GB server works for one light service (a VPN, a small bot, a static site) with a swap file as a cushion. Add a database or Docker and it runs out of memory quickly.
• A desktop PC below 6 GB: the 26.04 release notes point to the Xubuntu and Lubuntu flavours, which they say run on systems with 2 GB of RAM or more. They are the same Ubuntu underneath, with lighter desktops.
• Less disk than suggested is fine for a single-purpose server, as long as logs and package caches are kept in check; 4 GB is the floor for the system itself, not for your data.

What the minimum does not cover is upgrades. An LTS-to-LTS upgrade needs room to download and unpack the new packages while the old ones are still installed, so a machine that is tight on disk today is the one that fails halfway through the next release upgrade. The upgrade guide lists what to check before you start.

How do I check what my machine has?

free -h          # RAM and swap: read "total" and "available"
nproc            # number of CPUs
lscpu | grep -E '^(Model name|CPU\(s\)):'
df -h /          # size and free space of the root filesystem
uname -m         # architecture
systemd-detect-virt   # "none" on bare metal, "kvm" in a KVM VPS
cat /etc/os-release   # the Ubuntu release currently installed

These commands were run on a Debian 12 machine on 21 October 2026; Ubuntu ships the same ones. Expect free -h to show a little less RAM than the plan or the modules in the board: the kernel reserves some at boot, so a 4 GB server reports a total of about 3.8 GiB. That still meets a 3 GB suggestion comfortably. For df -h, read the Avail column of the line mounted on /: that, not the disk size, is what an install of more software or a release upgrade can use.

Do I need the desktop on a server?

No. Ubuntu Server has no graphical interface, and that is deliberate: everything is managed over SSH, and the RAM a desktop would use is left for the workload. A desktop is optional and can be added later if a program needs a GUI:

sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop-minimal   # GNOME, the Ubuntu Desktop look
sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies       # lighter, better suited to remote sessions

Plan for the desktop requirement on top of what the server already uses, so 6 GB or more for a GNOME session on 26.04. Virtual servers usually have no GPU, ours included, so the desktop is drawn by the CPU; that is why Xfce feels faster over a remote connection than GNOME does. Setting up xrdp on Ubuntu shows how to reach it with Remote Desktop.

Ubuntu on a VPS: which figures apply?

A VPS is installed from a prepared image rather than the ISO installer, so the cloud-image row is the realistic floor: 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of disk boot Ubuntu, and the suggested 3 GB and 25 GB leave room to work. If you are new to the model, what is a VPS explains how vCPUs, RAM and disk are shared out.

Ubuntu at VMHeaven

Our Ubuntu VPS ships Ubuntu 24.04, 22.04 or 20.04 LTS on KVM with root access, as of October 2026. The smallest Standard KVM plan has 2 vCores, 4 GB of RAM and a 20 GB disk: above the suggested RAM, and below the suggested 25 GB of disk but far above the 4 GB minimum, which suits a web server, a bot or a VPN. For a Docker host or a database, start at the 40 GB disk of the next plan up; plans can be upgraded later from the panel.

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