HARDWARE PLANNING

What hardware does Home Assistant need?

Home Assistant does not need a powerful computer for a typical household. The better question is how much maintenance you want to take on and whether the machine will also run other services.

Home Assistant Green

Home Assistant currently recommends Green for most people who want the simplest route. It arrives with Home Assistant OS already installed, so there is no operating-system setup or hardware assembly to manage.

Raspberry Pi

Home Assistant's current Raspberry Pi guide supports Pi 4 and Pi 5 with at least 2 GB RAM, a 32 GB or larger microSD card and Ethernet for installation. Ethernet is also recommended for reliability.

Mini PC or old x86-64 computer

A mini PC can make sense if you already own one, want faster storage, or plan to run Home Assistant alongside other services. Home Assistant OS can be installed directly on supported x86-64 hardware.

Virtual machine

For Home Assistant OS in a virtual machine, the current documented minimum is 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs. Resources can be increased later if your workload grows.

Container

Container installations suit people already comfortable with Linux and Docker. Home Assistant notes that Container does not include the app system provided by Home Assistant OS, so the surrounding services are your responsibility.

Do not overspec the hub

For most homes, reliability, storage quality and a clear backup plan matter more than raw CPU power. Buy extra compute only if you know which additional workloads need it.

Source: Home Assistant installation guidance and hardware FAQ.