> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://taraxa.gitbook.io/taraxa-network/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://taraxa.gitbook.io/taraxa-network/become-a-validator/consensus-node-hardware-requirements.md).

# Consensus node hardware requirements

## Lite Consensus Node

Minimum system requirements for the Lite Consensus Node are, 

* 4 CPU
* 8GB Memory 
* 100GB SSD 

Most consensus nodes on the network are lite consensus nodes. The only difference between a lite node and a full node is that the lite node prunes historical state upon node restart (many community nodes periodically restar their lite nodes), while the full nodes keep everything. 

Beyond the state pruning, there is otherwise no difference between the full consensus node and the lite consensus node. 

## Full Consensus Node

Minimum system requirements for the Full Consensus Node are, 

* 4 CPU
* 8GB Memory 
* 1.5TB SSD 

The full node's state db grows very quickly, especially when transaction load is high. Over time the storage requirements will keep growing. We of course encourage you to run a full node if storage is not too big of a concern for you, just be aware that the disk requirement will keep growing.