How much RAM does Syncthing need? We measured: 57 MB idle
Syncthing (file synchronization) used 57 MB of RAM across 2 processes sitting idle with default configuration — measured by us, on real hardware, not copied from another blog. Runtime: Go binary (runs a monitor + main process)
Pairs well with Navidrome or Uptime Kuma on a 1 GB box.
What the vendors say
Syncthing's docs say RAM usage scales with the number of synced files. Hosting guides commonly suggest 1–2 GB.
What changes under load
The real variable is file count: Syncthing keeps the index in memory, so hundreds of thousands of small files will push RAM into the hundreds of MB. For a personal sync folder, idle numbers hold.
Methodology
Each app was started with its default configuration and an empty data directory, left to settle for 25–30 seconds, and confirmed alive with an HTTP request to its web interface. We then recorded the resident set size (RSS) of the app's entire process tree via ps. Apps were run directly on the host (no Docker), so numbers exclude container overhead (~10–30 MB with Docker).
A fresh minimal Ubuntu 24.04 VPS typically idles at roughly 200–300 MB RSS (kernel, systemd, sshd, journald). All 'fits on' verdicts below assume ~300 MB reserved for the OS.
Where to run it
A 512 MB instance from Hetzner, Vultr or DigitalOcean covers this app with the OS overhead included. Don't pay for RAM the measurements say you won't use.
Other apps we measured
File Browser (16 MB), Gotify (20 MB), ntfy (27 MB), PocketBase (31 MB), Caddy (40 MB), Navidrome (47 MB), Prometheus (70 MB), MinIO (132 MB), Uptime Kuma (136 MB), Gitea (158 MB), Forgejo (173 MB), code-server (VS Code in the browser) (191 MB)