OpenClaw on DigitalOcean

Goal

Run a persistent OpenClaw Gateway on DigitalOcean for $6/month (or $4/mo with reserved pricing).

If you want a $0/month option and don’t mind ARM + provider-specific setup, see the Oracle Cloud guide.

Cost comparison (2026)

Picking a provider:

• DigitalOcean: simplest UX + predictable setup (this guide)
• Hetzner: good price/perf (see Hetzner guide)
• Oracle Cloud: can be $0/month, but is more finicky and ARM-only (see Oracle guide)

Prerequisites

• DigitalOcean account (signup with $200 free credit)
• SSH key pair (or willingness to use password auth)
• ~20 minutes

1) Create a Droplet

1. Log into DigitalOcean
2. Click Create → Droplets
3. Choose:
   • Region: Closest to you (or your users)
   • Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
   • Size: Basic → Regular → $6/mo (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD)
   • Authentication: SSH key (recommended) or password
4. Click Create Droplet
5. Note the IP address

2) Connect via SSH

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

3) Install OpenClaw

# Update system
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Install Node.js 24
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs

# Install OpenClaw
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Verify
openclaw --version

4) Run Onboarding

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The wizard will walk you through:

• Model auth (API keys or OAuth)
• Channel setup (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, etc.)
• Gateway token (auto-generated)
• Daemon installation (systemd)

5) Verify the Gateway

# Check status
openclaw status

# Check service
systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway.service

# View logs
journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -f

6) Access the Dashboard

The gateway binds to loopback by default. To access the Control UI:

Option A: SSH Tunnel (recommended)

# From your local machine
ssh -L 18789:localhost:18789 root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

# Then open: http://localhost:18789

Option B: Tailscale Serve (HTTPS, loopback-only)

# On the droplet
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
tailscale up

# Configure Gateway to use Tailscale Serve
openclaw config set gateway.tailscale.mode serve
openclaw gateway restart

Open: https://<magicdns>/

Notes:

• Serve keeps the Gateway loopback-only and authenticates Control UI/WebSocket traffic via Tailscale identity headers (tokenless auth assumes trusted gateway host; HTTP APIs do not use those Tailscale headers and instead follow the gateway's normal HTTP auth mode).
• To require explicit shared-secret credentials instead, set gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false and use gateway.auth.mode: "token" or "password".

Option C: Tailnet bind (no Serve)

openclaw config set gateway.bind tailnet
openclaw gateway restart

Open: http://<tailscale-ip>:18789 (token required).

7) Connect Your Channels

Telegram

openclaw pairing list telegram
openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

WhatsApp

openclaw channels login whatsapp
# Scan QR code

See Channels for other providers.

Optimizations for 1GB RAM

The $6 droplet only has 1GB RAM. To keep things running smoothly:

Add swap (recommended)

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Use a lighter model

If you're hitting OOMs, consider:

• Using API-based models (Claude, GPT) instead of local models
• Setting agents.defaults.model.primary to a smaller model

Monitor memory

free -h
htop

Persistence

All state lives in:

• ~/.openclaw/ — openclaw.json, per-agent auth-profiles.json, channel/provider state, and session data
• ~/.openclaw/workspace/ — workspace (SOUL.md, memory, etc.)

These survive reboots. Back them up periodically:

openclaw backup create

Oracle Cloud free alternative

Oracle Cloud offers Always Free ARM instances that are significantly more powerful than any paid option here — for $0/month.

Caveats:

• Signup can be finicky (retry if it fails)
• ARM architecture — most things work, but some binaries need ARM builds

For the full setup guide, see Oracle Cloud. For signup tips and troubleshooting the enrollment process, see this community guide.

Troubleshooting

Gateway will not start

openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor --non-interactive
journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service --no-pager -n 50

Port already in use

lsof -i :18789
kill <PID>

Out of memory

# Check memory
free -h

# Add more swap
# Or upgrade to $12/mo droplet (2GB RAM)

Related

• Hetzner guide — cheaper, more powerful
• Docker install — containerized setup
• Tailscale — secure remote access
• Configuration — full config reference