Source: https://gameye.com/glossary/warm-pools/

---
title: "Warm pools | Gameye"
description: "Warm pools are pre-started containers held in reserve so game servers can be assigned to players instantly instead of cold-starting on demand."
---

# Warm pools

Warm pools are pre-started containers held in reserve per application per region. When a session request arrives, the orchestration platform assigns a container that’s already running instead of cold-starting a new one. This reduces allocation time to near-zero.

## How warm pools work

You configure a pool size — for example, 10 containers in Europe and 5 in North America. The platform keeps that many containers running and ready. When a matchmaker requests a session, one is assigned immediately. The pool is replenished automatically.

## Billing and trade-offs

Every container in the warm pool is billable while it’s held, whether or not it has been assigned to a session. You’re paying for reserved readiness. Size your pool to match expected concurrent demand, not your peak — cloud bursting handles spikes above the baseline.

Warm pools are most valuable for competitive games where sub-second allocation matters, or high-frequency matchmaking where even a 0.5-second cold start adds up across thousands of sessions per minute.

Building a multiplayer game? Gameye hosts dedicated game servers: ship your server as a Docker container and start one per match with a single API call, in a region near your players.

[See how it works →](https://gameye.com/how-it-works/)

[Back to Glossary](https://gameye.com/glossary/)

## Related terms

- ### Auto scaling

Auto scaling starts new game server instances as player load rises and releases them when demand drops — no manual intervention required. [Read more](https://gameye.com/glossary/auto-scaling/)
- ### Session hosting

Session hosting is when a server, or computer, runs your game’s matches. Each match, with a set group of people, is considered a session. [Read more](https://gameye.com/glossary/session-hosting/)
- ### Server Allocation

Server allocation assigns a dedicated server to a match — the step between matchmaking and players connecting to a live session. [Read more](https://gameye.com/glossary/server-allocation/)