OpenClaw VPS

Who it suits

People who want an AI assistant that's always on and reachable from chat apps or a browser, working on their own server and files. You bring the model: an API key from a provider OpenClaw supports. Running large local models needs far more memory than these plans have; OpenClaw on a VPS usually calls a hosted model.

Which plan

Standard (2 vCPU, 4 GB) is the smallest plan we offer it on: installs are widely reported to fail on 1 GB servers and to be tight on 2 GB, and the gateway, its tools and any browser automation all want memory. Choose Extreme for heavy browser automation or several agents at once.

What we install

OpenClaw from its official installer, set up for an openclaw user with its own copy of Node.js in that user's home, so it never runs as root. Lingering is on for that user, so the gateway's systemd user service starts at boot once you install it. Its config, credentials and workspace live under /home/openclaw.

From order to ready

1. Server ready. We email you when the server is running, and you can log in with SSH. The installer starts on that same first boot.
2. Installer running. It logs to /var/log/vps9-setup.log; tail -f it to watch.
3. Application ready. /var/lib/vps9-setup.exit appears when the installer has finished, holding 0 if it worked. The install is done when su - openclaw -c 'openclaw --version' prints a version. Nothing is running yet: the gateway starts once you've run openclaw onboard --install-daemon with your provider's key.

What you still do

1. Log in with SSH and run su - openclaw.
2. Run openclaw onboard --install-daemon, add your AI provider's key, and keep the gateway on loopback, port 18789 (the defaults).
3. Run openclaw gateway auth-token --show and copy the token.
4. From your computer, run ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 root@<your IPv4>, open http://localhost:18789 and paste the token as the Gateway secret.

Exposure and security

Nothing listens publicly. OpenClaw's gateway binds to 127.0.0.1 on port 18789 by default and asks for a token even there; you reach its Control UI through an SSH tunnel. Keep it that way: thousands of OpenClaw gateways have been found open to the internet, and the gateway can run commands on the server. Tailscale is the other safe way to reach it.

Backups and upgrades

OpenClaw changes fast. Update it as the openclaw user with openclaw update, which restarts and checks the gateway for you; openclaw doctor checks its health. Back up /home/openclaw/.openclaw off the server, where its config, credentials and workspace live by default, and take a backup before a big update. We run the hardware, the network and the first-boot install; after that, OpenClaw is yours to run, and we don't manage, update or back it up for you.

Order it from your terminal

$ vps9 servers create --plan standard --image ubuntu-24.04 --app openclaw --hostname web-1 --key key_8f2c

{
  "plan": "standard",
  "image": "ubuntu-24.04",
  "hostname": "web-1",
  "app": "openclaw"
}