Canonical has increased the minimum RAM requirement for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS desktop edition to 6 GB, up from 4 GB in prior releases. The change appears in the release notes for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, codenamed Resolute Raccoon, which has not yet launched. Ubuntu Server maintains lower requirements at 1.5 GB minimum for ISO installs.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the current long-term support release, specifies 4 GB of RAM, a 2 GHz dual-core processor, and 25 GB of storage as minimums. These same requirements carried over to Ubuntu 25.10. The shift to 6 GB for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS desktop marks the first such increase in some time, according to the release notes. Ubuntu Server documentation lists 1.5 GB as the minimum for ISO installs and suggests 3 GB for real-world workloads. Windows 11 lists 4 GB as its minimum RAM requirement, alongside a mandatory Trusted Platform Module version 2.0. Recent Windows computers typically ship with at least 8 GB of RAM. For systems with 4 GB of RAM, lighter Ubuntu variants such as Lubuntu offer better compatibility. Lubuntu, using the LXQt desktop, runs with a minimum of 1 GB RAM and recommends 2 GB. Xubuntu serves as another option, along with window managers like i3 or bspwm for even lower-resource setups.