How to reduce lag on your Minecraft server
Make your Minecraft server run smoother, step by step from easiest to biggest: Paper, view distance, cleaning up farms, performance mods, pre-generating the world and more RAM.
Updated 3 November 2026 · 4 min read
Lag on a server usually means the server can't finish its work 20 times a second. Blocks come back after you break them, mobs freeze, and the console says Can't keep up!. Try these steps in order. Most servers are smooth again after the first two.
If only one player lags and everyone else is fine, the problem is usually their own internet or PC, not the server. Ask them to lower their render distance or try another network.
1. Use Paper for vanilla and plugins
Paper is a faster version of the normal Minecraft server, and your friends still join with normal Minecraft. If you play vanilla, switch to Paper on the Versions page (make a backup first). See Paper, Fabric, Forge or NeoForge.
2. Lower view and simulation distance
Open Properties:
- View distance: try
8. This is how far players can see. - Simulation distance: try
6. This is how far from players mobs move and crops grow.
Save and restart. This one change helps more than anything else.
3. Clean up farms and item piles
Hundreds of animals in one pen, big mob farms and piles of dropped items all use CPU every tick.
- Keep animal pens to a few dozen animals.
- Collect or destroy item piles and put hoppers on farm outputs.
- Turn off farms you aren't using.
4. Add performance mods or plugins
- Fabric: install Lithium and FerriteCore from the Mods page. They change nothing in gameplay, but make the server lighter. Friends don't need them.
- Paper: most tuning is built in. Spark (plugin or mod) shows exactly what is slowing the server down: type
spark profilerin the console, wait a minute, thenspark profiler --stopfor a report link.
5. Pre-generate the world
Exploring new land is the heaviest thing a server does. The Chunky plugin or mod generates the world ahead of time, while nobody is playing. For example, in the console: chunky radius 2000, then chunky start. It can take a while, and the world uses more disk space.
6. Give it more RAM
If the console still says Can't keep up! often, or the server crashes with OutOfMemoryError, it's time for more RAM. Modpacks especially need room. Check How much RAM you need, then upgrade from the client area. Your world stays the same, and more RAM also gives you more CPU.