How much does a Rust server cost?Four plans - and why the map size sets the price

Published on October 5, 2026

Prices at a glance

Four plans, all prepaid and without a contract. The buttons take you to the order with the plan already selected:

The "Best for" column names the map size a plan is designed for. There is no slot limit - you set the maximum yourself via server.maxplayers.

Which plan for which server?

The choice follows the map first, and only then the group:

• Plan S for a group of friends on a small map. With a worldsize of up to about 2500, the world stays dense and the base load low.
• Plan M for your first public server: a map around 3000, a framework and a manageable plugin list. This is the entry point we recommend to most people.
• Plan L for a community server whose map should still run smoothly in the third week after the wipe.
• Plan XL for maps from 4000 and large communities with many clan bases.

The best way to check the requirement on a running server is server.fps at peak time - more on that below.

What drives the price

Three factors determine how much memory and computing power a Rust server needs:

• The map size. The effort grows with the area, not with the edge length. A large map with few players costs more than a small one with many.
• Entities. Every building piece, every box and every electrical setup is simulated permanently. A freshly wiped server is light; the same server three weeks later no longer is.
• Plugins. It isn't their number that counts but what they do. Events, NPCs and zones cost noticeably, chat and rank plugins hardly at all.

The player count is missing from this list on purpose. The server simulates terrain, monuments, animals and all stored objects even at night, when nobody is connected. That is why we don't sell slots, but resources.

The wipe cycle is your cost lever

No other game gives you the chance to reset the base load once a month. On the first Thursday of the month, the Facepunch update forces the force wipe, and the map is regenerated anyway. Two decisions come free on that day:

• Shrink the map instead of growing the plan. If the server was sluggish towards the end of the cycle, start the next one with a smaller worldsize. That solves the problem at the root.
• Shorten the cycle. A weekly or bi-weekly map wipe keeps the number of entities low. A long cycle lets it grow and needs more headroom.

So you size for the end of the cycle, not for wipe day. If the server is already sluggish shortly after the wipe, the plan is too small. If it only slows down in the last week, the map is too big for the plan - and that can be fixed at no extra cost.

What is included in the price

• Oxide and Carbon for modded servers.
• One-click wipe for the force wipe and your own wipes in between.
• Custom maps via URL or upload.
• RCON and Rust+ for management from outside and the companion app.
• Automatic updates, task scheduler, web file manager and SFTP, plus access for co-admins.
• DDoS protection up to 250 Gbit/⁠s, located in Frankfurt am Main, provisioned in around 120 seconds.

Automatic backups are not included. You back up the identity folder, server.cfg and plugin configuration yourself via SFTP or the web file manager.

Keeping costs low

Before you reach for the bigger plan, three steps are worth it:

1. Measure. server.fps at peak time, once shortly after the wipe and once towards the end of the cycle. The trend says more than any single value.
2. Check your plugins. A single badly written plugin can cost more than twenty good ones.
3. Only then upgrade. You do that yourself in the customer interface; world, plugins and configuration are kept.

On top of that comes prepaid: there is no contract and no automatic renewal. If you take a break, let the credit run out. With Rust this costs particularly little, because the map is regenerated at the next force wipe anyway. If your players' blueprints should survive the break, download the identity folder beforehand.

How billing works without a contract is explained on Game servers without a contract.

Frequently asked questions