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How Dedicated Resources and load balancing share memory and CPU on Umbraco Cloud

How Dedicated Resources are shared between environments, how memory shows in Traffic and Performance, and what each load-balanced instance gets.

Written by Joana Knobbe

Type: FAQ
​Category: Umbraco Cloud > Usage and plans
​Tags: dedicated resources, dedicated server, dedicated plan, load balancing, load balanced, instances, scale out, memory, RAM, CPU, memory usage, private bytes, memory percentage, over 100%, Traffic and Performance, environments, Development, Staging, Live, sizing, Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, upgrade plan

Product: Umbraco Cloud
​Version: N/A (Cloud Portal feature)

Summary

If you are on Dedicated Resources, or planning a move to a load-balanced setup, you probably want to know how much memory and CPU your Live site actually gets. Here's how it works:

  • Environments you move to a dedicated server share that server. There's no fixed split per environment.

  • With load balancing, each instance gets the full size you picked. The size isn't divided between instances.

  • On dedicated, Traffic & Performance shows memory in MB, not as a percentage of a quota.

Do my environments share the dedicated server?

It depends on which environments you move. When you move to Dedicated Resources, you choose which environments go to the dedicated server:

  • Only Live: Live has the dedicated server to itself. Your other environments stay on shared hosting.

  • Several environments (for example Development, Staging and Live): they all share the CPU and memory of the same dedicated server. There's no fixed amount per environment. Heavy work on Development or Staging, like a large import or a slow build, can take headroom away from Live.

If Live performance is what matters most, moving only Live gives it the whole server.
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How does load balancing use the dedicated size?

Load balancing runs your environment on two or more instances, and each instance is a full dedicated resource of the size you picked. For example, a Medium size (16 GB memory, 4 CPU cores) on 3 instances gives you 3 instances with 16 GB each. It's not 16 GB split across 3.

A few things to know:

  • The load-balanced environment must be the only environment on its dedicated server.

  • Load balancing is available on Professional and Enterprise plans, and needs a Redis cache.

  • Each extra instance is billed as its own dedicated resource. See the Umbraco Cloud scaling page for current pricing.

Why does memory look different on a dedicated plan?

On shared plans, the Memory Usage tile in Insights > Traffic & Performance shows usage as a percentage of your plan's quota, with warnings above 80% and 100%.

On dedicated plans, there's no quota comparison. The tile shows memory as average private bytes in MB, with the maximum, average and minimum values for the time range. The warning and error indicators only apply to shared plans.

If you see a memory percentage above 100% on an environment that is on Dedicated Resources, it is not counted against your dedicated server's memory. Contact us so we can check it.
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How much memory and CPU do I have?

The current Dedicated Resources sizes are:

  • Extra Small: 4 GB memory, 1 CPU core (Starter and Standard)

  • Small: 8 GB memory, 2 CPU cores (Standard and Professional)

  • Medium: 16 GB memory, 4 CPU cores (Professional)

  • Large: 32 GB memory, 8 CPU cores (Professional)

To see which size your project is on, open your project in the Cloud Portal and go to Management > Dedicated Resources. The Umbraco Cloud scaling page always has the up-to-date sizes. If the labels in the portal look different, go by the scaling page and feel free to ask us.
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How do I size a new dedicated or load-balanced setup?

  1. Go to Insights > Traffic & Performance and check the peak memory and CPU for your Live environment over the last 30 days.

  2. If Development or Staging share the same dedicated server today, remember that Live's numbers alone don't show what those environments use.

  3. Pick a size where your Live peak fits with room to spare. You can resize later once you see how the site runs.

  4. With load balancing, traffic is spread over the instances, but every instance still needs to run the full site on its own. Size each instance for that.

Still having issues?

  • If you are chatting with Umboto right now, type "talk to human" and we will connect you with someone who can help.

  • If you are reading this article in the Help Center, contact us by clicking the messenger icon at the bottom right.

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Last updated on October 28, 2026

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