How much RAM does Immich need?

The project's stated minimum is 6 GB, with 8 GB recommended, mainly because of the machine-learning container that powers face recognition and smart search. It runs on a 4 GB VPS in practice, and you can even run it on 2-4 GB by disabling the machine-learning service — upload, albums, browsing and manual search keep working, you just lose the AI features. The AI container also needs an x86-64-v2 CPU (most CPUs from ~2012 onward).

Do I need a domain name to use Immich?

No. Immich is reachable on port 2283 via your server's IP address, and the mobile apps accept a raw http:// :2283 server URL. A domain with HTTPS is strongly recommended for real use, though — it gives you a stable server URL for the apps and encrypts uploads from outside your home network. Put a Caddy or Nginx reverse proxy in front to get an automatic Let's Encrypt certificate.

Why does Immich use a special Postgres image?

Immich stores search and face-recognition vectors directly in Postgres using the VectorChord / pgvecto.rs extension, so it ships a purpose-built Postgres image (ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres) with that extension pre-installed. You cannot swap in a plain postgres image — the pinned Immich database image is required for smart search and face grouping to work.

Can I migrate my existing Google Photos or iCloud library into Immich?

Yes. Export your library with Google Takeout or from iCloud, then import it into Immich — either with the official immich-go CLI tool (which understands Google Takeout structure, including album membership and metadata) or via the web uploader. Once imported, Immich re-runs thumbnail generation, face recognition and smart-search indexing over your whole history.

Is my data private with Immich?

Completely. Immich is AGPL-3.0 open source, self-hosted, and the machine-learning features run locally on your VPS — your photos are never sent to a third-party AI service for indexing. There is no mandatory telemetry. You own the disk, the backups and the retention policy, which is the whole point of running it on infrastructure you control rather than a US cloud provider.

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Immich

Self-hosted photo and video backup — a private, full-featured Google Photos alternative with native mobile apps, running on infrastructure you own.

4 Go (6-8 Go recommandé) RAM 2 vCPU Port 2283 Disponible

Code source

Stack technique

DockerNode.jsPython (ML)PostgreSQL pgvectorValkey/Redis

RAM minimum4 Go (6-8 Go recommandé)

CPU minimum2 vCPU

Port par défaut2283

OS compatiblesubuntu-24.04

Immich is an open-source, self-hosted photo and video management platform built to replace Google Photos, iCloud and Amazon Photos. Its native iOS and Android apps automatically back up every photo and video you take the moment you are on Wi-Fi — the same background upload experience as the big cloud providers, except the files land on your own VPS instead of a US datacentre.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Immich gives your household or team unlimited storage bounded only by your disk, a fast web timeline with map and album views, and on-device-quality AI features — face recognition that groups people automatically, object and scene detection, and natural-language search ("beach sunset 2024") — all computed locally by the bundled machine-learning container. No per-gigabyte subscription, no USD billing, no third party scanning your family photos. Immich is heavy by design (the AI model container is the resource-hungry part), so it is best run on a VPS with at least 4 GB of RAM, ideally 6-8 GB once machine learning is enabled.

Fonctionnalités clés

Native iOS and Android apps with automatic background backup of photos and videos — the Google Photos experience, on your own server

Local AI: face recognition, object/scene detection and natural-language smart search, all computed on-box by the machine-learning container (no cloud, no third-party scanning)

Fast web timeline with albums, shared albums, a map view of geotagged media, favourites and a memories feature

Multi-user with per-user libraries and quotas — one Immich instance for the whole family or a small team

RAW, live photos, motion photos, 360° and video support with automatic thumbnail and preview generation

AGPL-3.0, fully self-hosted, no telemetry required and no per-gigabyte subscription — storage is bounded only by your VPS disk

Quand utiliser cette solution ?

1

Private family photo cloud

Install the Immich app on every phone in the household, point it at your VPS, and every new photo backs up automatically over Wi-Fi. Create one user per family member, share albums between them, and browse the whole library from the web — a complete Google Photos replacement where the files never leave a server you control.

2

Ditch the Google Photos / iCloud subscription

Stop paying a monthly USD fee that scales with your storage. A single fixed-cost VPS with a large disk holds tens of thousands of photos, and you can grow the volume when you need to. Immich imports your existing Google Takeout / iCloud export so you can migrate your entire history in one pass.

3

Local AI search without sending photos to the cloud

Immich's machine-learning container runs face recognition and CLIP-based smart search on your own VPS. Type "passport", "whiteboard" or "my daughter at the beach" and get results in seconds — the models run locally, so your private images are never uploaded to a third-party AI service for indexing.

Déployer Immich sur votre VPS

Guide optimisé pour les VPS Cloud ServOrbit.

01

Order a VPS

Pick a ServOrbit VPS with at least 4 GB RAM (6-8 GB recommended once machine learning is active) and generous disk for your photo library. Ubuntu 22.04, Docker pre-installed by the provisioner. The immich-machine-learning container is the heavy part — on a strict 2-4 GB box you can drop it and keep upload, albums and browsing.

02

Deploy the Immich stack

The provisioner brings up four containers with Docker Compose: immich-server (the web app and API on port 2283), immich-machine-learning (local AI), a valkey (Redis) cache, and a pinned pgvector-enabled Postgres for the search index. Set a strong DB_PASSWORD before the first boot — it initialises the database and cannot be changed afterwards without a reset.

03

Open the web app and create the admin account

Browse to http://:2283. On first launch Immich shows a setup wizard: create the admin user, then add additional users (one per family member) from the admin panel. Everything is served from a single port, so a reverse proxy is optional at this stage.

04

Install the mobile app and start backing up

Install Immich from the App Store or Google Play, enter your server URL (http://:2283 or your domain) and log in. Enable automatic backup and choose which albums to sync. From now on every photo and video you take uploads to your VPS in the background over Wi-Fi.

05

Add a domain and HTTPS (recommended)

Immich works fine on IP:2283, but for a clean experience put it behind a reverse proxy with a domain and TLS — e.g. Caddy: photos.yourdomain.com { reverse_proxy localhost:2283 }. Point the DNS A record at your VPS first. A domain also makes the mobile app URL stable and enables secure HTTPS uploads from outside your network.

Questions fréquentes

Yes. Immich covers the core Google Photos experience end to end: native iOS and Android apps with automatic background backup, a web and mobile timeline, albums and shared albums, a map view, memories, face recognition and natural-language smart search. The key difference is that every photo and video lives on your own VPS instead of a cloud provider's servers, with no per-gigabyte subscription.

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