---
title: "Hosting an OpenTTD server: the complete guide"
description: "Size, landscape and starting year are locked when the map is generated. The single port, the 25 MiB of memory, and the config line without which the server starts with no password."
url: https://tickserv.com/guides/openttd-server-hosting
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-09-07
games: [openttd]
---
# Hosting an OpenTTD server: the complete guide

OpenTTD is played over the long run: a network takes tens of hours to build, and a multiplayer game only makes sense if the map is still there between sessions. That is exactly what a dedicated server is for — except that here, it costs nothing while it is off. No reason to keep it running Monday to Friday for a Saturday game.

## 1. Create the server

Pick **OpenTTD**, the RAM and the performance level. The server starts on its own; you get a stable connection address and a password to share with your group.

Three choices are made **when the map is generated, and cannot be revisited**. The game can neither grow an existing map nor change its climate.

## 2. The three choices locked at creation

| Setting           | What it decides                                                                                                  |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Size**          | 256 × 256 (small), 512 × 512 (medium) or 1024 × 1024 (large). The bigger the map, the longer it takes to create. |
| **Landscape**     | Temperate, sub-arctic, sub-tropical or toyland. It drives the climate, the industries and the cargo you haul.    |
| **Starting year** | From 1700 to 2050, in steps of ten. It decides which vehicles are available when the game starts.                |

Want to try another climate? Create a second server: the first one costs nothing while it is off.

## 3. The two settings you can change any time

- **Computer-controlled competitors** — from 0 to 14 rival companies. At 0 the map is yours alone; that is the default, because a game among friends is rarely played against the AI.
- **Pause when a player joins** — the game stops while the newcomer loads the map, so they miss nothing while it loads. On by default.

Both are changed from your console and take effect on the next start.

## 4. Joining the game

In the game, open multiplayer, add a server with the **address and port shown in your console**, then enter the password. That is the only way in: OpenTTD has no party code.

You have **no ports to open** at home — the game port (3979) is already in place, over TCP and UDP.

The server takes **8 players by default, up to 25**.

One point of honesty: there is **no console** for OpenTTD in your account. The game speaks its own admin protocol, different from the one we use on the other games, and we do not wire it up. The address, the server state and the connected players are still visible, but you do not type commands.

## 5. The password, and the trap we defused for you

Since OpenTTD 14, the game **splits its configuration across three files**: the main one, the one holding the server name, and the one holding the password. And it only opens the last two **if the first one declares its ini version**.

Without that single line, the server starts **with no password**, calls itself “Unnamed Server”, and says nothing about it. We checked this by querying a real server through its own console: without the declaration the password is empty; with it, the expected values all show up at once. It is handled here — and it explains why some “private” OpenTTD servers end up with visitors.

## 6. Your game is kept between sessions

On shutdown the server gets its quit command and writes a save — that is the only path that produces one; a hard stop would lose everything after the last autosave. The next start reloads that file, on a brand-new machine, with nothing for you to do.

Already have a game running on your PC? Bring it over:

1. Grab your game's `.sav` file, from OpenTTD's `save` folder (or `save/autosave` for an automatic save).
2. Put it **at the root of the archive**, with no folder around it.
3. Upload the archive when you create the server.

## 7. Add-on content

Our OpenTTD servers run the **base game content**: there is no NewGRF or script upload in your account. An imported game that depends on content downloaded on your own PC will not find it on the server.

## 8. How much RAM?

Here is the good surprise: **OpenTTD is by far the lightest game in our catalogue**. Measured on the image we serve, the server sits in **25 MiB of memory** at rest — a thousand times less than a modded Minecraft server.

Our smallest tier is therefore plenty, large map included: what a 1024 × 1024 map costs is **generation time** on the very first start, not memory. And since the price follows the RAM and the performance level — **never the game** — OpenTTD is the cheapest server we know how to run.

## 9. Shut it down when you are done

Server off = €0. Auto-shutdown kicks in on its own once nobody is connected, and the map comes back untouched next time. On a game played in waves — one Sunday with three friends, then nothing for a month — that is where the gap with a monthly plan opens up.

> [Create your OpenTTD server](https://tickserv.com/games/openttd) · [What it costs, exactly](https://tickserv.com/cost/openttd)