Minecraft server hosting pricing
No subscription and no monthly plan. You add funds up front, and they are only used for the minutes your server is online - from $0.04/hour. A typical friends server works out to $2–6/month.
How pay-per-minute pricing works
Your server starts automatically when a player joins and stops after the last player leaves (configurable). You are not charged for the start and stop time itself, and your prepaid balance never expires.
Flat-rate hosts charge $8–15/month for similar specs whether anyone plays or not. With usage-based billing you keep the "free while nobody plays" property and only pay for actual play time.
Every package, one hourly price
Standard packages bill per minute of server uptime. Upgrade or downgrade anytime.
| Package | CPU | Memory | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 1 vCPU | 3GB RAM | $0.04/hour | Vanilla with 1-2 people |
| Copper | 1 vCPU | 4GB RAM | $0.05/hour | Vanilla with more players or light datapacks |
| Quartz | 2 vCPU | 5GB RAM | $0.06/hour | Paper servers with a handful of plugins |
| Iron | 2 vCPU | 6GB RAM | $0.07/hour | Plugin servers and light modpacks |
| Lapis | 2 vCPU | 7GB RAM | $0.08/hour | Mid-size Forge and Fabric modpacks |
| Gold | 2 vCPU | 8GB RAM | $0.09/hour | Mid-size modpacks with more players |
| Redstone | 2 vCPU | 10GB RAM | $0.10/hour | Heavy modpacks like All the Mods or DawnCraft |
| Diamond | 2 vCPU | 11GB RAM | $0.11/hour | Heavy modpacks with a bigger crowd |
| Emerald | 2 vCPU | 12GB RAM | $0.12/hour | The largest modpacks and busy servers |
Super tier: dedicated nodes
Your server runs on its own node. Starting builds the node in about 3–5 minutes, and node time is billed per hour with a one-hour minimum.
| Package | CPU | Memory | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prismarine | 4 vCPU | 16GB RAM | $0.20/hour | Heavy modpacks with a full lobby, on a node of their own |
| Netherite | 4 vCPU | 32GB RAM | $0.27/hour | The largest modpacks, public communities, and worlds that never sleep |
- Your own node. Nothing else runs on it, so CPU and memory are never shared.
- 3–5 minutes to start. The first start after a stop builds a fresh node; the server starts by itself once it's ready.
- Billed per hour. Node time is billed in whole hours from when it's ready, running or not. It stays ready for the rest of the paid hour after a stop, so a restart is instant.
Available in US East (Virginia) and Europe (Germany).
Running mods or plugins? See our Forge, NeoForge, Fabric, and Paper hosting pages.
What a Minecraft server actually costs
Three realistic setups, priced with the real package rates above.
Casual vanilla crew
Five friends on a vanilla survival world, playing a couple of evenings a week.
- Package: Iron - 6GB RAM, 2 vCPU
- Play time: 8 hours/week × 4.33 weeks × $0.07/hour ≈ $2.42
- Storage: 1 GB storage × $0.18/GB/month = $0.18
- Total: ≈ $2.60/month
Weekend modpack group
Four friends working through a mid-size Forge or Fabric modpack on weekends.
- Package: Lapis - 7GB RAM, 2 vCPU
- Play time: 10 hours/week × 4.33 weeks × $0.08/hour ≈ $3.46
- Storage: 5 GB storage × $0.18/GB/month = $0.90
- Total: ≈ $4.36/month
Always-active community
A public community server with players online most evenings and weekends.
- Package: Gold - 8GB RAM, 2 vCPU
- Play time: 40 hours/week × 4.33 weeks × $0.09/hour ≈ $15.59
- Storage: 2 GB storage × $0.18/GB/month = $0.36
- Total: ≈ $15.95/month
Past roughly 150 hours a month, a flat-rate host can be price-competitive - the difference is you keep per-minute billing for the quiet weeks.
Storage pricing
Storage costs $0.18 per GB per month, deducted daily from your balance - it is the only charge while your server is offline. A typical 1–2 GB vanilla world costs about $0.18–0.36/month; a 600MB world works out to roughly $0.003 per day.
Adding funds
Add $5, $10, or $20 at a time. Your balance never expires.
Pricing questions, answered
Is there a monthly fee or subscription?
Am I charged for the time it takes my server to start and stop?
Does my balance expire?
What happens when my balance runs out?
Can I set a spending limit?
How do storage fees work?
How is the Super tier billed differently?
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