How much does a game server cost?
Short answer
For 4 friends playing 6 hours a week, a private game server costs between €0.52 and €1.56 a month, depending on the game. You pay for each started hour the server runs, and nothing at all while it is off.
We bill by the started hour: a session of 2 h 10 is billed as 3 hours. The figures below assume your play time is your billed time — a session that runs over rounds up to the next hour.
Cost by game
The same scenario for every game: 4 players, 6 hours a week, on the RAM we recommend for that game.
| Game | RAM | Price / hour | At 6 h a week | Monthly plan elsewhere | Before a plan wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minecraft | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €8.00 | 400 h a month |
| Valheim | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €12.00 | 400 h a month |
| Palworld | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €14.00 | 233 h a month |
| Factorio | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €10.00 | 333 h a month |
| Project Zomboid | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €13.00 | 433 h a month |
| Core Keeper | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €8.00 | 400 h a month |
| Terraria | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €5.00 | 250 h a month |
| Minecraft Bedrock | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €8.00 | 400 h a month |
| OpenTTD | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €4.00 | 200 h a month |
| Avorion | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €6.00 | 300 h a month |
| Necesse | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €5.00 | 250 h a month |
| Enshrouded | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €8.00 | 133 h a month |
| Barotrauma | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €6.00 | 300 h a month |
| Vintage Story | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €5.00 | 250 h a month |
| Rust | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €5.00 | 83 h a month |
| Satisfactory | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €8.00 | 133 h a month |
| 7 Days to Die | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €6.00 | 200 h a month |
| Icarus | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €10.00 | 166 h a month |
| Sons of the Forest | 16 GB | €0.06/h | €1.56 | €10.00 | 166 h a month |
| Mindustry | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €2.00 | 100 h a month |
| Unturned | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €4.00 | 200 h a month |
| The Forest | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €10.00 | 333 h a month |
| Veloren | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €3.00 | 150 h a month |
| Mordhau | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €15.20 | 506 h a month |
| Holdfast | 8 GB | €0.03/h | €0.78 | €8.00 | 266 h a month |
| Xonotic | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €2.00 | 100 h a month |
| OpenRA | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €2.00 | 100 h a month |
| DDNet | 4 GB | €0.02/h | €0.52 | €2.00 | 100 h a month |
“Monthly plan” is a market benchmark: what a host billing a fixed monthly fee asks for a comparable server, taken at the low end of what we measured. It is not our price, and it is not a quote from them.
Prices include VAT. A stopped server costs €0.
Your own rhythm
Open interactive simulatorHow much does it cost?
You only pay for the hours you play. Server off = €0.
Swipe to see the comparison
| Configuration | Hourly rate | On TickServ(3 h / week) | Elsewherefixed monthly sub |
|---|---|---|---|
4 GB· 2 vCPU for Minecraft, Core Keeper, Terraria +12 | €0.02/h | ≈ €0.26 /month or ~€0.07 / player | from €8.00/month −97 % |
8 GB· 4 vCPU for Minecraft, Valheim, Factorio +6 | €0.03/h | ≈ €0.39 /month or ~€0.10 / player | from €15.20/month −97 % |
16 GB· 8 vCPU for Palworld, Project Zomboid, Enshrouded +4 | €0.06/h | ≈ €0.78 /month or ~€0.20 / player | from €27.20/month −97 % |
32 GB· 16 vCPU for Minecraft, Factorio | €0.10/h | ≈ €1.30 /month or ~€0.33 / player | from €48.00/month −97 % |
Estimate (3 h/wk × 4.33 wks). A stopped server costs nothing. “Elsewhere” = the monthly plan of a fixed-price host at the same RAM, taken from the low end of what we surveyed in September 2026. It is not our price, and it is not a quote from them.
What actually changes the bill
- The RAM you pick. The price is carried by the RAM, not by the game: at equal RAM, every game costs the same.
- The performance level. A shared vCPU is the cheaper one; a dedicated CPU costs more per hour and is what heavy mods and crowded servers need.
- The hours the server actually runs. It stops on its own once nobody is playing, and an hour that never starts is never billed.
- Nothing else. No setup fee, no mandatory subscription, and keeping your world between sessions costs nothing.
How can an idle server cost €0?
When a server stops, the world is compressed and archived to Cloudflare R2 object storage (included at no extra charge, barring the optional timestamped backups plan). The compute virtual machine is destroyed. You only pay for active playing time: zero CPU, memory, or maintenance fees are billed between your gaming sessions.