Playpute
Game servers that cost nothing when nobody is playing.
Pick a game, pick a region, and get an address players can connect to. Put the server to sleep when nobody is on it, and the next player to connect wakes it — the address keeps working either way.
The three things you work with
- Build — what to install
Files, binaries, dependencies. Most game servers are already published somewhere, so a build declares a source: a Steam app id, a vendor archive URL, or a zip you upload.
- Game — what it is
A catalogue entry, and a node in a tree. Minecraft is a game; Java Edition is a game inside it; Forge is a game inside that. Only the leaves can be run. Plany publishes several ready to use, and you can add your own.
- Game server — one running copy
Lives in a project and a region, because it runs somewhere specific and is billed to the project that owns it.
The split matters because the same files serve many games: one Minecraft server jar underpins vanilla, and a Forge build layers on top of it. A game is configuration; a build is files.
Your first server
Servers → New server → choose a game and a machine type → CreateWhen it is ready, the server's address is what you give players.
What makes it different
A server that is stopped or asleep costs nothing to run. Set
sleep_after_idle and an empty server goes to sleep on its own.
Players get one address that works whether or not the server is running. Connecting to a sleeping server wakes it.
A server that stopped recently comes back quickly, with its world exactly as it was.
A group declares a size range and what to scale on, and creates and removes ordinary game servers to match demand.
What it costs
You pay for a server's machine type and disk while it runs. A stopped or sleeping server is not charged for either.
| SKU | Unit | Rate |
|---|---|---|
playpute-vcpu-hour | vCPU-hour | $0.016 |
playpute-gib-hour | GiB-hour | $0.007 |
playpute-spot-vcpu-hour | vCPU-hour | $0.0064 — spot, Pro plan only |
playpute-spot-gib-hour | GiB-hour | $0.0028 — spot, Pro plan only |
playpute-local-storage-gib-hour | GiB-hour | $0.00014 (about $0.10 a GiB-month), while the server runs |
microvm-schematic-storage-gib-hour | GiB-hour | $0.000032, first 20 GiB-hours a month free — schematics |
playpute-proxy-hour | hour | $0.005 per public port (about $3.65 a month), free for the games Plany publishes — see Addresses |
network-egress-gib | GiB | first 25 GiB a month free, then $0.08, falling with volume |
Per machine type, a standard-2 is $0.060 an hour
while it runs. Hobby's $5 a month runs one for about 83 hours — roughly three
hours a night.
The live price list is in the console. Rates here are current at the time of writing.
Compute is metered to the minute. An autoscaling group costs nothing itself — you pay for its members.
The rest of this section
States, sleeping, ephemeral servers, who can reach them.
The named sizes a server runs at, and what each costs.
Spare capacity at 60% off, with two minutes' notice. Pro plan.
The address players use, and what happens when they connect to a sleeping server.
Turning a game's declared settings into server.properties.
Capture an installed server so the next one starts in seconds.
Scaling policy, warm-up, draining, rolling out a new build.
What your server printed, kept and searchable.
Who is on your servers now, and who was earlier.