Cardano's node release trims memory in time lock scripts

Victoria Shinder22 September 2026, 00:252 min read

cardano-node 11.1.2 was published on 17 September 2026, and its release note is one sentence long on the change itself: it optimises memory usage in time lock scripts.

What makes it worth reading is the section underneath. The notes keep two known issues in view, both measured against version 11.0.1:

• when syncing, memory use is still slightly higher than 11.0.1 — but significantly less than the regression introduced in 11.1.0;
• when on tip, there is a small increase that the project correlates with taking ledger snapshots.

Both point at published test results rather than asking to be believed. The release also warns that cardano-rpc carries breaking changes from 11.0, and states plainly that the benchmark and system-testing reports are the ones from 11.1.1, declared applicable to this version rather than re-run.

The stated minimum for running a node remains substantial: 24 GB of RAM with the InMemory backend, 8 GB with OnDisk (marked pending confirmation), and 300 GB of storage, with 350 GB recommended. Block production is supported on Linux only — Windows and macOS are client roles.

What it means

A release that names its own regression is more useful than one that does not. The honest shape here is "11.1.0 cost you memory, 11.1.1 and 11.1.2 gave most of it back, and here is the measurement". An operator can decide from that; a note saying "performance improvements" leaves the same operator guessing.

Reusing the previous version's benchmarks is a reasonable choice, stated openly. The change is narrow, so re-running the suite would tell you what you already know. The point is that the notes say so — the numbers you are reading are 11.1.1's.

The memory line is the one to watch on your own hardware. Two backends with a 3× difference in stated RAM requirement, plus a snapshot-correlated increase on tip, means the sizing question is not answered by a single number. Anything provisioned tightly against 11.0.1 should be measured again before upgrading.