Clawdbot on DigitalOcean

Goal

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

If you want something even cheaper, see Oracle Cloud (Free Tier) at the bottom — it's actually free forever.

Cost Comparison (2026)

Provider	Plan	Specs	Price/mo	Notes
Oracle Cloud	Always Free ARM	4 OCPU, 24GB RAM	$0	Best value, requires ARM-compatible setup
Hetzner	CX22	2 vCPU, 4GB RAM	€3.79 (~$4)	Cheapest paid, EU datacenters
DigitalOcean	Basic	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	$6	Easy UI, good docs
Vultr	Cloud Compute	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	$6	Many locations
Linode	Nanode	1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	$5	Now part of Akamai

Recommendation:

• Free: Oracle Cloud ARM (if you can handle the signup process)
• Paid: Hetzner CX22 (best specs per dollar) — see Hetzner guide
• Easy: DigitalOcean (this guide) — beginner-friendly UI

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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 Clawdbot

# Update system
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Install Node.js 22
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs

# Install Clawdbot
curl -fsSL https://clawd.bot/install.sh | bash

# Verify
clawdbot --version

4) Run Onboarding

openclaw-cn 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
clawdbot status

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

# View logs
journalctl --user -u clawdbot-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
clawdbot config set gateway.tailscale.mode serve
clawdbot gateway restart

Open: https://\<magicdns\>/

Notes:

• Serve keeps the Gateway loopback-only and authenticates via Tailscale identity headers.
• To require token/password instead, set gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false or use gateway.auth.mode: "password".

Option C: Tailnet bind (no Serve)

clawdbot config set gateway.bind tailnet
clawdbot gateway restart

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

7) Connect Your Channels

Telegram

openclaw-cn pairing list telegram
openclaw-cn pairing approve telegram <CODE>

WhatsApp

openclaw-cn channels login whatsapp
# Scan QR code

See Channels for other providers.

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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

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Persistence

All state lives in:

• ~/.openclaw/ — config, credentials, session data
• ~/clawwork/ — workspace (SOUL.md, memory, etc.)

These survive reboots. Back them up periodically:

tar -czvf clawdbot-backup.tar.gz ~/.openclaw ~/clawd

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Oracle Cloud Free Alternative

Oracle Cloud offers Always Free ARM instances that are significantly more powerful:

What you get	Specs
4 OCPUs	ARM Ampere A1
24GB RAM	More than enough
200GB storage	Block volume
Forever free	No credit card charges

Quick setup:

1. Sign up at oracle.com/cloud/free
2. Create a VM.Standard.A1.Flex instance (ARM)
3. Choose Oracle Linux or Ubuntu
4. Allocate up to 4 OCPU / 24GB RAM within free tier
5. Follow the same Clawdbot install steps above

Caveats:

• Signup can be finicky (retry if it fails)
• ARM architecture — most things work, but some binaries need ARM builds
• Oracle may reclaim idle instances (keep them active)

For the full Oracle guide, see the community docs.

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Troubleshooting

Gateway won't start

openclaw-cn gateway status
clawdbot doctor --non-interactive
journalctl -u clawdbot --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)

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See Also

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