The honest answer: most people over-provision. RAM is the spec people buy too much of because it's the easiest number to compare. Here's the real sizing guide by workload.
| Workload | Recommended RAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Static site / reverse proxy | 512 MB – 1 GB | Nginx or Caddy barely touches RAM |
| WordPress (1–2 sites) | 1–2 GB | 2 GB if you use heavy page builders |
| Lightweight Docker stack (3–5 containers) | 2 GB | Watch out for databases |
| Minecraft / small game server | 2–4 GB | Minecraft is RAM-hungry; check server type |
| n8n + Uptime Kuma automation | 2 GB | Comfortable at 1 GB if you trim workflows |
| Bots (Discord/Telegram, single) | 1 GB | Plenty for a single bot |
| Multiple apps + databases | 4 GB | The "everything at once" box |
RAM isn't the only axis — a 2 GB box with a slow CPU or spinning disk can feel worse than a 1 GB box with an NVMe. When you pick a provider, storage type matters as much as RAM. See the full comparison for which budget hosts ship NVMe.
The killer move is to start at 1–2 GB, watch real memory usage with htop or a monitoring agent for a week, and scale up only when swap starts getting hit. Most sites never need the upgrade.