OpenClaw hosting
Your always-on personal AI assistant, running 24/7 on a server you control.
OpenClaw hosting at AIHostBox means a dedicated, single-tenant OpenClaw instance on our infrastructure: we install it, pin it to a reviewed release, put it behind TLS on your domain, back it up nightly and keep it patched. Plans start at $9.99 per month and the admin account, the data and any API keys are yours.
OpenClaw is the open-source personal AI assistant that broke out in early 2026 (you may have met it as Clawdbot or Moltbot). It runs a small always-on gateway that connects the model of your choice — Claude, GPT or a local model — to the places you actually live: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack and email. It browses, runs skills, manages files and acts on schedules, which is precisely why it cannot live on your laptop: the moment the lid closes, your assistant is gone.
That gateway is a natural fit for a small managed server. We keep the process online around the clock on dedicated CPU cores with NVMe storage, restart it if it crashes, and give you SFTP access to the workspace plus a console for logs. You bring your own model key and pairing codes; uptime and updates are our job. The arithmetic is the other half of the argument: OpenClaw’s official cloud is $49/month, a dedicated managed instance here starts at $9.99.
OpenClaw hosting plans
Every plan is a dedicated single-tenant instance with NVMe storage, nightly off-box backups, TLS and managed patching. Quarterly, semi-annual and annual terms are discounted at checkout. Model tokens are not included — you bring your own key.
How we run OpenClaw
The official OpenClaw gateway container (ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw) with its state in a persistent /home/node/.openclaw volume and the Control UI on port 18789 behind TLS; the Pro plan uses the browser-enabled image variant with Chromium baked in.
What we configure for you
- OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN generated at onboarding, or password auth if you prefer
- Your model provider key (Anthropic, OpenAI) or an Ollama baseUrl on its native API
- DM pairing left on, with openclaw pairing approve walked through for each channel
- OPENCLAW_INSTALL_BROWSER and the latest-browser image for browser control on Pro
- The SearXNG plugin with its baseUrl set, if you want key-free web search
- A pinned image version, upgraded by us with the pre-migration backups checked
Which plan fits
Starter (4 GB, 2 vCPU) runs the gateway, chat bridges, skills and schedules comfortably when the model is a hosted API. Pro (8 GB, 4 vCPU) is for browser control, since a headless Chromium session is the heaviest thing OpenClaw does. Neither plan is sized to run a local model in the same instance; use a separate Ollama plan for that.
The honest limits
Model tokens are not included, and an assistant with tools acts with whatever access you give it: OpenClaw’s own docs say to treat inbound messages as untrusted input, so connect only the accounts and files you are prepared for it to use.
What people run OpenClaw for
Personal chief-of-staff
Triage email, draft replies and manage your calendar from the messenger you already use.
Home & business automations
Let it watch feeds, scrape pages, file invoices and ping you when something needs a human.
Always-on coding agent
Kick off long-running tasks from your phone and collect the results when they finish.
Shared team assistant
Bridge one assistant into a group chat with per-contact rules.
How OpenClaw hosting compares
| Option | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw Cloud (official) | $49/mo | The project's own hosted service — the convenient default, at five times the price. |
| Elestio | from $16/mo | Managed, but priced per vCPU and per GB on top of the infrastructure cost. |
| DIY VPS | $3.79–4.95/mo | Cheapest on paper. You own the install, the updates, the restarts and the 3am pager. |
| AIHostBox | from $9.99/mo | Dedicated single-tenant instance, managed updates and backups. |
Bring your own model key on every option here — none of these prices include Anthropic or OpenAI tokens.
Prices verified September 2026 and may have changed since.
Licence and version policy
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Upstream licence | MIT |
| Sold as managed hosting | Yes |
| Tenancy | Single tenant — one customer per instance |
| Patching | Critical advisories within 24 hours, high severity within 72 |
Our full position on licences, including the applications we decline to sell, is on the licensing page.
Reading on OpenClaw
Works well with OpenClaw
Ollama
Your private LLM server — pull a model, get an API, keep every token on your own box.
from $16.99/moDetails →
SearXNG
A private metasearch engine — and the search backend your agents need.
from $5.99/moDetails →
LiteLLM
One OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of every model provider you use.
from $5.99/moDetails →More AI assistants & chat we host
Open WebUI
A ChatGPT-style workspace for your team, pointed at any model you like.
from $5.99/moDetails →
LibreChat
Multi-model chat with agents, plugins and conversation forking.
from $11.99/moDetails →
LobeChat
A fast, polished chat UI with a large plugin and assistant marketplace.
from $11.99/moDetails →
SillyTavern
The character-driven chat front-end, online wherever you are.
from $5.99/moDetails →OpenClaw hosting: your questions
What do I actually need to run OpenClaw?
Does the price include the AI model?
Why not run it on my own PC?
How does this compare to OpenClaw Cloud?
Can OpenClaw run on a local model instead of Claude or GPT?
How are the Control UI and my chats protected?
What happens to my data during an OpenClaw upgrade?
Which files make up my OpenClaw instance?
Run OpenClaw without running a server
A dedicated OpenClaw instance, deployed and maintained by us. Month to month, cancel whenever.