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 €1.30 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 | €0.05/h | €1.30 | €14.00 | 280 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 | €0.05/h | €1.30 | €8.00 | 160 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 |
“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
How much does it cost?
You only pay for the hours you play. Server off = €0.
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.