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Abstract The dependence of particle production on the size of the colliding nuclei is analyzed in terms of the thermal model using the canonical ensemble. The concept of strangeness correlation in clusters of sub-volume $$V_c$$ V c is used to account for the suppression of strangeness. A systematic analysis is presented of the predictions of the thermal model for particle production in collisions of small nuclei. The pattern of the maxima of strange-particles-to-pion ratios as a function of beam energy is quite special, as they do not occur at the same beam energy and are sensitive to the system size. In particular, the $$\Lambda /\pi ^+$$ Λ / π + ratio shows a clear maximum even for small systems while the maximum in the $$K^+/\pi ^+$$ K + / π + ratio is less pronounced in small systems.