32GB is the new baseline for serious dev work.

Yes, upgrade. If you regularly have multiple IDEs (VS Code, IntelliJ, whatever), Docker containers running, and a mountain of Chrome tabs (each one a memory hog), 16GB will start choking. You’ll feel it in swaps, delays, and that sinking feeling when the system starts beachballing.

Docker alone can eat 4–8GB depending on what you’re running. Chrome? Easily another 4–6GB for a heavy session. Add your IDE’s indexer, language servers, maybe a local database, and you’re over 16GB before you open a single terminal. 32GB gives you breathing room—your machine won’t fight you for memory, and you can keep everything open without micro-managing tabs.

Is it always necessary? No. If you’re doing light scripting in one editor and use Firefox, you might get by with 16GB. But for the stack you described, 32GB is where the headache stops. Future You will thank you when you don’t have to close Slack just to build a container.

Don’t cheap out here. RAM is the one upgrade that makes your entire machine feel faster every second you’re using it.