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Paper Options and their OptimizationsStill have questions?
Kobe Plane
Game Experience Engineer
How to Optimize your Paper Configuration to Reduce Lag
One of the main strengths of running a Paper server over a Vanilla one is the sheer amount of customisability offered from the Paper configuration files. As a Paper server owner, this gives you the ability to seriously fine-tune your server performance, usually by cutting corners off of bloated gameplay features.
Please Note
The configuration options discussed in this guide only apply to servers using the Paper Minecraft server type or a PaperMC fork, like Purpur.
#Paper Options and their Optimizations
Below is a list of configuration options that can be found in the paper-world-defaults.yml configuration file. These options will be applied to each world individually when they are first generated on Paper. If a world already has a paper-world.yml settings file generated, changing the defaults file will not affect it.
You can locate this config file at /config/paper-world-defaults.yml
| Option | Description | Default | Optimized / Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| max-auto-save-chunks-per-tick | Slows down how often chunks are saved during world save. Don’t go below 8 to avoid data loss. | 24 | 8 |
| optimize-explosions | Uses Paper’s efficient explosion handling. Less important after 1.15, but still beneficial. | false | true |
| tick-rates: mob-spawner | Increases time between mob spawner ticks. Only increase if experiencing lag. | 1 | 2 |
| tick-rates: container-update | Controls how often container GUIs (like chests) update. Higher values reduce server load, but avoid going above 3–4. | 1 | 3 |
| max-entity-collisions | Limits how many entities can collide at once. Helps with performance in crammed mob areas. | 8 | 2 |
| tick-rates: grass-spread | Increases time between grass spreading ticks to reduce load. | 1 | 4 |
| non-player-arrow-despawn-rate | Time in ticks before non-player arrows despawn. Useful to reduce entity lag. | default | 60 |
| creative-arrow-despawn-rate | Same as above, but for arrows shot in creative mode. | default | 60 |
| hopper.disable-move-event | Prevents hoppers from checking every slot each tick. Improves performance significantly. | false | true |
| prevent-moving-into-unloaded-chunks | Stops players from entering unloaded chunks, preventing potential lag spikes. | false | true |
| entities: armor-stands: tick | Disables ticking for armour stands (only needed for water interaction). Frees up performance. | true | false |
| per-player-mob-spawns | Uses per-player mob spawns to balance mob farms and prevent griefing of server-wide spawns. | false | true |
| anti-xray | Paper's built-in anti-xray system. More efficient than plugins. | false | true |
While running a Paper Minecraft server, you will also have access to some additional configuration files, which can also be optimized. Feel free to refer to the following guides for more resources on how to further optimize your Paper Minecraft server: