ChatGPT Plus runs you $20 a month. For that, you get a web interface and access to one provider. Starting today, every ClawHosters OpenClaw instance ships with free AI hosting that includes DeepSeek R1 and Gemini Flash. And honestly, that makes ChatGPT Plus look like a bad deal.
What Changed with Free AI Hosting
Every ClawHosters instance now includes free AI hosting with DeepSeek R1 and Gemini Flash at no extra cost. Budget tier at EUR 19/mo, Balanced at 35, Pro at 59. Free AI access comes with all of them.
According to the DeepSeek R1 GitHub repository, the model hits 97.3% on MATH-500 and matches OpenAI o1 performance. And BentoML's analysis shows it's roughly 95% cheaper to train and run. That's how we can offer free DeepSeek hosting.
Gemini Flash free tells a similar story. Google's official API docs confirm that Gemini 2.5 Flash provides free input and output tokens with reasonable rate limits.
Three Tiers of Freedom
But here's where it gets interesting. You're not locked into these free AI models.
Tier 1: Use the free models. DeepSeek R1 or Gemini Flash, ready to go. No API key needed, no extra charges. Zero configuration. Spin up your instance and you're done.
Tier 2: Bring your own API key (BYOK). Want Claude from Anthropic because you value the reasoning quality? Or GPT-4o for multimodal tasks? With LLM workflow automation, you can connect any provider. If you need help setting this up, the Claude AI setup service has you covered. Add your key and use whatever provider you prefer. As Medium's BYOK guide explains, you keep full control over your costs and data. Your API costs, your control.
Tier 3: ZeroTier to your own LLM. Running a Llama model on your home server? Connect it to your ClawHosters instance through a ZeroTier network. Your model, your hardware, our infrastructure. No uploading your data to external APIs.
Why Not Just Self-Host?
Fair question. OpenClaw has over 189,000 GitHub stars and is one of the fastest-growing open-source AI projects. Anyone can set it up.
The problem: security researchers found over 17,500 exposed OpenClaw instances across 52 countries. Self-hosting sounds great until you forget about firewall rules, Docker hardening, and security patches. Most people do.
ClawHosters handles all of that. Free AI hosting infrastructure as a managed hosting solution. We roll out security patches automatically, instances run in isolation, and you don't have to think about it. I think that matters more than most people realize.
The Comparison: ClawHosters vs ChatGPT Plus
ChatGPT Plus gives you a web interface. That's it. (And yes, that's absurdly little for $20.)
ClawHosters Budget at EUR 19/mo gives you:
Free AI hosting solution with a full assistant on Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, and Slack
Free DeepSeek R1 and Gemini Flash included
BYOK support for any LLM provider you want
ZeroTier support for self-hosted models
Deployment in under 60 seconds, zero maintenance
People are already running Gmail, Calendar, and cloud infrastructure from Telegram. Some even set up complex automations like trading bots on OpenClaw hosting. AI agents that work around the clock. That's the kind of setup ClawHosters makes possible without touching a terminal.
What Can You Actually Do With This?
A ClawHosters user in Berlin has been controlling his entire Gmail inbox, calendar appointments, and Slack notifications from Telegram for three months. Without opening the apps once. You can't do that with ChatGPT Plus.
Others use AI agent hosting for automated content research, customer service bots, or monitoring systems. The instances run 24/7, respond to events, and execute workflows while you sleep.
ClawHosters combines the benefits of open-source software with the reliability of managed hosting. Free AI hosting models, BYOK flexibility, and ZeroTier integration in one package. Questions about setup? Contact me, I'm happy to help.