Frequently Asked Questions

There are four managed LLM tiers. Eco runs on DeepSeek V3 and keeps costs low. Standard uses Gemini Flash for a good balance of speed and quality. Premium gives you Claude Haiku, which is the highest quality option. Then there's BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), which is completely free. With BYOK, you plug in your own API keys from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Mistral, or Groq. The managed tiers are not available yet, but BYOK works right now.

Voice is an upcoming add-on for speech recognition, powered by OpenAI Whisper. We're planning packages at 100, 500, and 2,000 minutes per month. It's not available yet, but it's on the roadmap.

Embeddings give your AI agent semantic search and memory. You'll be able to pick between minilm (384 dimensions, faster) and qwen3 (4096 dimensions, more precise). This one is also still in development.

That depends on how important your data is. The Backup add-on will automatically create snapshots of your instance with 7, 30, or 90 day retention. All backups are stored on Hetzner infrastructure. It's not available yet, but for now, a manual snapshot is created whenever you pause your instance. So you're not without a safety net.

Yes. Once add-on management is live, you can add or remove them at any time from the dashboard. Billing adjusts proportionally, so you only pay for what you actually use.

Nothing. BYOK is free. You pay your API provider directly (OpenAI, Anthropic, whoever you choose) and that's it. Your keys are stored encrypted and never logged. If you already have API access or need a specific provider, BYOK is probably the way to go.

Go to your dashboard, open "Settings > API," and generate a key. Every key starts with oc_live_. You can create as many as you need and revoke any of them at any time. Full API docs with examples live at clawhosters.com/api/docs.

You get 100 requests per minute per API key. Go over that and you'll see a 429 error. If you need higher limits, reach out to support. Batch operations count as a single request, so those won't eat into your quota as fast.

Pass a Bearer token in the Authorization header: Authorization: Bearer oc_live_.... Every request needs to go over HTTPS. If the token is missing or invalid, you'll get a 401 Unauthorized back.

The API v1 covers quite a bit. You get health checks, account info, instance management (list, show, delete, start, stop, pause, resume, rebuild), add-on management, backups, and billing. Webhooks for event notifications are on the roadmap. We're still actively expanding the API.

Right now we have official examples for cURL, Python, and JavaScript. If you build a community SDK, we'd love to see it. The API follows standard REST conventions with JSON responses, and there's an OpenAPI spec you can use for automatic client generation.

Postman or Insomnia work well for this. There's no sandbox environment yet, so keep in mind that all API calls hit real resources. If you want to experiment without risk, spin up a Budget tier instance with daily billing.

Claws are our internal currency. You buy a package, and we deduct Claws daily for your active services. We've got five packages: €10 (650 Claws), €20 (1,380 Claws, 6% bonus), €40 (2,900 Claws, 12% bonus), €80 (6,100 Claws, 17% bonus), and €160 (13,000 Claws, 25% bonus). The bigger the package, the more bonus Claws you get.

We accept credit cards and SEPA direct debit through Stripe, and crypto (Bitcoin, Ethereum, others) through Coinbase Commerce. Monthly subscriptions are charged automatically.

Because your instance is provisioned right away, we can't offer refunds. By purchasing, you waive the 14-day EU withdrawal right. If something goes wrong on our end (like a service outage we caused), reach out and we'll look into issuing a credit.

Your instance gets paused automatically. We'll warn you at 7, 3, and 1 day of remaining balance so you've got time to top up. Once paused, you have 7 days to add more Claws. After that, the instance is permanently deleted. Don't worry though, we create a snapshot before pausing so your data isn't just gone.

Every day at midnight GMT, we deduct Claws from your balance based on your tier. Budget costs 45 Claws/day, Balanced costs 75 Claws/day, and Pro costs 125 Claws/day. If you create an instance mid-day, your first day is prorated based on the hours left until midnight. Add-ons are billed separately. You can check your usage anytime in the dashboard.

Not for monthly subscriptions. If you're on daily billing, there's a one-time setup fee: €5 for Budget, €10 for Balanced, or €15 for Pro. It covers the cost of provisioning your server and only applies when you create a new instance. It's non-refundable.

ClawHosters is managed hosting for OpenClaw AI agents. We take care of the server infrastructure, security, and maintenance so you can focus on your AI agent instead. All servers run in German data centers (Hetzner Falkenstein/Nuremberg) and are fully GDPR compliant.

Once you've registered and logged in, hit "New Instance" in your dashboard. Pick your billing mode (daily or monthly), choose a tier (Budget, Balanced, or Pro), and confirm. Your instance is usually ready in under 60 seconds. You'll get an email as soon as it's up.

There are three tiers to choose from. Budget (EUR 19/month or 45 Claws/day) gives you 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, and 40 GB storage. Balanced (EUR 35/month or 75 Claws/day) comes with 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, and 80 GB storage, and it's the most popular option. Then there's Pro (EUR 59/month or 125 Claws/day) with 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, and 160 GB storage for heavier workloads. All tiers include 20 TB traffic.

Not at all. The setup walks you through everything with a step-by-step wizard. If you're more technical, there's also a REST API you can use for automation, along with full API documentation.

Not yet, but it's planned. Right now you'd need to create a new instance on the tier you want. We're working on making tier changes possible directly in a future update.

You can email us at support@clawhosters.com. Balanced and Pro customers get priority support. There's also an option to create a support ticket right from your dashboard. We typically reply within 24 hours on business days.

An API key is a credential from an AI provider (like Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google) that lets your OpenClaw instance use their AI models. Think of it as a password that connects your assistant to the AI brain. You pay the AI provider directly for usage. ClawHosters doesn't charge extra for AI calls. Typical costs are somewhere between $1 and $20/month depending on how much you use your assistant.

ClawHosters supports all the big AI providers. Anthropic (Claude models, recommended for coding and automation), OpenAI (GPT-4o), Google (Gemini), OpenRouter (access to 200+ models through one key), and DeepSeek. You can also use privacy-focused providers like haimaker.ai for open-source models. For a detailed comparison, check out Best Models for OpenClaw.

Every provider has their own process, but it works pretty much the same everywhere. Sign up on their website, add a payment method, and create an API key. For Anthropic, go to console.anthropic.com. For OpenAI, go to platform.openai.com. For Google, go to aistudio.google.com. For OpenRouter, go to openrouter.ai. If you have a Claude Pro or Max subscription, you can also run claude setup-token in your terminal to generate a token.

Everything stays in Germany. We use Hetzner Cloud data centers in Falkenstein and Nuremberg, so latency for European users is low and you're fully GDPR compliant. Your data never leaves the EU.

Under 60 seconds in most cases. We keep a pool of pre-warmed servers with all software already installed, so your instance is basically ready right away. You'll get an email once it's done, and you can watch the progress live in the dashboard.

Yes, any time you want. When you pause, we create a snapshot and temporarily remove the server. You won't be charged while it's paused. When you're ready to continue, we restore everything from the snapshot. One thing to keep in mind: if your balance stays at zero for 7 days, paused instances get deleted.

You can open a support ticket directly from the dashboard. We monitor all instances on our end too. If something critical goes down, we'll reach out to you before you even notice. We don't offer formal SLA guarantees, but we take uptime seriously.

You've got three options: the ClawHosters dashboard, the REST API, and direct SSH. The dashboard is probably the easiest way to manage things day to day. The API is great if you want to automate parts of your workflow. And SSH is there for the cases where you need to dig deeper. You can add your own public keys in the dashboard settings.

Yes, as many as you need. Each one is billed on its own. There's no hard limit on how many you can create, and you manage all of them from the same dashboard. If you're planning a larger deployment, reach out and we can talk about volume pricing.

We support Telegram, Discord, Slack, and WhatsApp. You set them up in the dashboard under "Configure Messenger." For Telegram, you'll need a bot token from BotFather. Discord and Slack work similarly, you grab a bot token from their developer portals. WhatsApp is a bit different since it uses a pairing flow through your instance's web interface. You can connect more than one platform to the same instance if you want.

If you see this status after provisioning, it just means the server is running but still needs an LLM API key. Head to "Configure AI" in the dashboard and add your key. Once that's done, the instance switches to "Running" on its own.

If you set a messenger channel's DM policy to "Pairing," new users need your approval before they can talk to your AI agent. You'll see pending requests in the dashboard and can approve or deny them one by one. If you'd rather skip that step, set the DM policy to "Open" and anyone can start a conversation right away.

You can read the full Terms of Service at clawhosters.com/terms. They cover things like our Acceptable Use Policy, how billing works, liability limits, and how we handle disputes. When you use ClawHosters, you're agreeing to those terms.

The short version: don't do anything illegal or harmful. That means no malware, no spam, no phishing, no copyright violations, no crypto mining without permission, no DDoS attacks, no network scanning, and no hosting of illegal content. If you break these rules, your account gets terminated immediately with no refund.

We provide our services "as is" and can't guarantee 100% uptime at all times. Our liability is capped at whatever you've paid us in the last three months. We're not responsible for data loss, outages caused by third parties, force majeure events, or any indirect damages.

German law applies. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is excluded. If there's ever a dispute, we'll try to sort it out directly first. The EU also provides an online dispute resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.

Because we start provisioning your server right away, you waive the 14-day right of withdrawal under EU consumer law when you purchase. This is shown clearly at checkout and you'll need to confirm it before completing your order.

ClawHosters is run by Daniel Samer in Germany, as a service of Yixn.io. You can reach us at support@clawhosters.com. The legal notice (Impressum) is at yixn.io/en/imprint. For anything related to data protection, just use the same contact address.

All transfers are encrypted with TLS/SSL, and stored data uses AES-256 encryption. The servers sit in German Tier-3+ data centers with physical access controls. We run regular security audits, and everyone on the team who handles data is trained accordingly.

Yes. All data is stored in Germany and never leaves the EU. You have full GDPR rights, including access, rectification, erasure, and data portability. If you need to reach our data protection contact, send an email to support@clawhosters.com.

Only you. Our support team can see server metadata when troubleshooting, but they can't touch your application data unless you give explicit permission. Third parties like Hetzner, Stripe, and Coinbase only process the data they need to run their part of the service.

Every instance runs in its own isolated Docker container with strict resource limits. Iptables firewall rules block unwanted traffic by default. That includes outbound SMTP, so nobody can use your instance to send spam. Fail2ban handles brute-force protection on SSH. If you need SSH access, it's available and secured with key-based authentication.

Your data gets deleted within 30 days after cancellation. You can request a full data export before that happens. We're required to keep billing and payment records for 10 years under German tax law. Server logs are automatically wiped after 90 days.

Right now you can sign in with email and password, or use Google Sign-In. We're planning to add two-factor authentication (2FA) in a future update. For now, we recommend using a strong, unique password for your ClawHosters account.

The quickest fix is a restart. Head to "Manage Instance" in your dashboard and hit "Restart." If that doesn't help, take a look at the resource utilization section. You might be running into memory or CPU limits, in which case upgrading your tier would solve it. Still stuck? Open a support ticket and include what you're seeing so we can dig into it faster.

On the login page, click "Forgot Password" and enter your email. You'll get a reset link that's valid for 24 hours. If the email doesn't show up or something else goes wrong, reach out to support@clawhosters.com. We'll need to verify your identity before resetting it manually.

This happens when your Claws balance runs out. The system pauses the instance automatically to prevent unexpected costs. To get back up, top up your balance and click "Resume" in the dashboard. Your data is safe as a snapshot for 7 days. After that, the instance gets permanently deleted, so don't wait too long.

A 401 usually means your API key isn't being sent correctly. Double check the Authorization header format: Bearer oc_live_.... Also make sure the key hasn't been revoked in your dashboard. If you're unsure, generating a fresh key is the fastest way to rule out key issues. And confirm you're calling the API over HTTPS, not HTTP.

Most instances are ready in under 60 seconds. If yours is taking longer, it's likely a temporary capacity issue on our end. Give it a few minutes and refresh the status page in your dashboard. The system monitors stuck provisioning jobs automatically and will retry if something went wrong.

The most common reason is an instance or add-on you forgot was still running. Go to your dashboard and check what's currently active. Daily billing happens at midnight GMT for every active service. You can review the full transaction history to see exactly what was charged and when. If something still looks off, contact support and we'll sort it out.