ARCADYO_BETA

How Much Does a Rust Server Cost? (2026 Prices)

2026-09-14 · updated 2026-10-04 · Lire en français

A Rust server for 2 to 10 friends costs roughly 10 to 20 a month (in euros, dollars or pounds) in the entry tier of a normal host (8 to 12 GB of RAM), and 30 to 50 once you want 16 GB or more. The price follows RAM, which grows with map size (our reading of the plan tiers below, not a host statement); player slots matter less, since at least one host, Physgun, sells unlimited slots. Pay-per-hour hosts and a spare PC are the two other routes, with trade-offs listed below. All prices were read on 2026-10-04 and each one can change tomorrow.

Prices from fixed-RAM hosts, 2026-10-04

You pick a RAM size and pay the same every month, whether anyone played or not. Currencies are as shown on each page; they are not converted.

Host Plan Price per month VAT status
Physgun Micro, 10 GB $11.87 not stated
Physgun Starter, 10 GB, unlimited slots $19.87 (first month $16.89 with a code) not stated
GTXGaming Survivor, 50 slots, 10 GB £9.99 not stated
Minestrator MyBox 8, 8 GB €13.99 not stated
Pine Hosting Essential, 8 GB, 50 slots $14.99 not stated
GameServerKings Starter, 12 GB $13.00 (dedicated IPv4 +$5.00) not stated
Iceline Solo/Duo, 6 GB £16.20 not stated
GameServerKings Standard, 16 GB $32.50 not stated
Pyro Core, 16 GB (Americas region price) $48 not stated
mTxServ Starter, 15 slots “from €19.99” (tier prices not shown; billing period not clear on the page) not stated

Not verified today, so left out: Shockbyte (the page returned an error to our fetch), Sparked Host and Host Havoc (no usable RAM and price table in what we could read), Haptic (page not found).

Pay-per-hour hosts

  • PowerupStack: €0.0795 per online hour for 8 GB, capped at €19.36 per calendar month, plus storage (the cap is reached after about 243 hours). The page says 21% VAT is included.
  • RespawnHost: about €0.0958 per hour for 8 GB, billed per second while the server is online, or €19.00 a month prepaid month by month (from €13.30 on longer terms). VAT is not stated. Its own calculator says pay-per-use wins below about 6.6 hours of play a day.

Neither charges for running time while the server is off; PowerupStack still bills storage, €0.121 per GB per month with VAT. In both cases someone starts the server from a dashboard (checked 2026-09-08, not re-tested today); PowerupStack also documents an idle timer that stops it.

Self-hosting on a PC

No rental fee. The PC has to be on whenever someone wants to play, and your router has to let connections in (see our guide to making a Rust server for friends). Facepunch asks for 12 GB of free RAM and 15 GB of disk, with a bigger map needing more. The electricity cost is the PC’s power draw in kilowatts, times hours running, times your price per kWh: we do not guess a number because draw varies a lot between machines.

Arcadyo, as one row

Arcadyo is a private beta, and these numbers are a provisional beta model, in euros, with no VAT added (art. 293 B CGI): €0.01 per GB of memory per awake hour (about €0.06 to €0.08 an hour for a 6 to 8 GB world), a €2.90 monthly base that is waived in any month you play for more than that, and a maximum of €19.90 a month. During the private beta it is free for the first 20 groups, up to 40 awake hours a month. The server sleeps when nobody is connected and wakes when someone connects from Rust.

Why 6 to 8 GB when Facepunch asks for 12? Facepunch’s 12 GB is the free memory it wants on a machine before you start, with headroom. Arcadyo bills on the memory a server actually holds, not on a plan size, and we assume 6 to 8 GB for a small private world (an assumption for the beta, not a guarantee). A bigger map or a long plugin list holds more, and the bill follows it, up to the monthly maximum.

What makes the price go up

  • RAM. Facepunch says a 6,000 map uses more than the 12 GB baseline, and Facepunch says to set server.worldsize between 1,000 and 6,000. Within one host, price rises with RAM: GameServerKings goes from $13.00 at 12 GB to $32.50 at 16 GB.
  • Slots. Some hosts price by slot (GTXGaming: 50, 100, 160), Physgun sells unlimited slots. For ten friends this rarely decides the price.
  • Faster processors. Minestrator sells 8 GB at €13.99 on one processor line and €23.99 on a Ryzen 9 9900X line.
  • Extras. Pyro lists always-on DDoS protection and Iceline lists its “Iceline Shield” as included; GameServerKings charges $5.00 a month for a dedicated IPv4 address.
  • Billing period. Pyro and Physgun discount 5% for quarterly and 15% for annual billing.

FAQ

How much does a Rust server cost per month?

On the entry plans we read on 2026-10-04, between about 10 and 20 a month in the host's own currency (for example $11.87 to $19.87 at Physgun, £9.99 at GTXGaming, €13.99 at Minestrator). 16 GB plans run from about $32 to $48. Prices change, so check the host's page before paying.

How much RAM does a Rust server need?

Facepunch's setup page asks for 12 GB of free RAM and says a 6,000 m map uses more (read 2026-10-04). Several hosts sell 8 to 10 GB plans for small private groups; whether that is enough depends on map size and plugins.

Is it cheaper to host a Rust server on my own PC?

There is no rental fee, but the PC must stay on whenever anyone plays, and your router must allow connections in. The electricity cost depends on the PC's power draw, the hours it runs and your price per kWh, so it cannot be quoted as one number.

Are pay-per-hour Rust servers cheaper?

They can be if your group plays a few hours a week. RespawnHost's own calculator puts the break-even at about 6.6 hours of play per day against its monthly prepaid 8 GB plan; another widget on the same page says 7.6 (read 2026-10-04). Someone still starts the server from a dashboard.

Do Rust hosting prices include VAT?

It varies. Of the hosts below, only PowerupStack says VAT is included (21%); Physgun, Pyro, Pine Hosting, GameServerKings, Iceline, GTXGaming, Minestrator, mTxServ and RespawnHost do not say on the page we read.

Sources

Free tools mentioned in this post