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ARK: Survival Evolved Server Hosting
Raise a tribe, tame the island and take on the bosses while the AI copilot manages the ARK.
What do you need to host an ARK: Survival Evolved server?
An ARK: Survival Evolved dedicated server needs 8–12 GB of RAM per map, the ARK dedicated server build (Steam app 376030, around 18 GB on disk), UDP ports 7777, 7778 and 27015 open to the internet, and its rules written into GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini. Renting skips all of that: as an ARK server host, GameTeam charges $0.49 per GB of RAM a week (or $1.99/GB billed monthly), slots are unlimited, and the AI copilot edits the INI files, adds Workshop mods by ID and reads the log when the server won't start.
Run your ARK: Survival Evolved server by just asking.
ARK keeps its rules in two INI files and quietly rewrites them when the server shuts down. Ask the copilot instead: it stops the server before it edits, writes the values you asked for, and reads the log when a mod or an update knocks the island over.
Built for the Long Game
A tribe's base and breeding lines take months; the server just needs to be there every night, and it is.
INI Edits in Plain Words
Taming speed, XP, structure limits — describe the change and the copilot writes it and reads it back.
Whole Tribe, One Price
Unlimited player slots — the plan is per GB of RAM, not per head.
ARK: Survival Evolved with friends
A dinosaur survival game where taming is everything: the creature you knock out and feed becomes your mount, your farm hand and your army. Tribes build up over months — bases, breeding lines, boss fights — and the island turns into a shared history of everything you have raised and lost.
ARK: Survival Evolved server RAM requirements
8-12 GB for a single map. Running a cluster means budgeting that much per map, since each one is its own server process.
| Your server | Starting RAM | From (Budget, weekly) |
|---|---|---|
| A few friends on The Island, The Center or Ragnarok | 8 GB | $3.92 / week |
| 10–40 players, a few Workshop mods or a bigger map | 10 GB | $4.90 / week |
| 40–70 players, a long mod list or a save that's years old | 12 GB | $5.88 / week |
An empty ARK map uses roughly 3–7 GB on its own and each player online adds about 50–150 MB, but the tames and structures a tribe piles up over months are what really push memory up. Genesis: Part 2 is the heavy one at 10–12.5 GB with nobody on it, so give it 12 GB or more. Every map in a cluster is a separate server with its own RAM. You can raise RAM from the panel at any point and the save comes with it. Player limit: 20-70. Long-lived servers slow down from accumulated structures and tames more than from player count.
How to set up a ARK: Survival Evolved server on GameTeam
Choose RAM and the nearest location
Most tribes start at 8 GB on one map and move to 12 GB once mods or 40+ players arrive. Choose a location near the bulk of your players from 25+ across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
Choose the map and the rules
Tell the copilot the map, rates and mode you want (3x taming, PvE, a join password), or edit GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini in the file manager. Workshop mods go in as IDs on the ActiveMods line. Moving an existing world? Upload your ShooterGame/Saved folder.
Get the tribe in
In ARK pick Join ARK, set the session filter to Unofficial and search for your server's name. Not listed yet? Add the IP and query port from the panel to your Steam favorites, or press Tab and type open followed by the IP and game port.
Good to know before you start
Decide early whether this is a single map or part of a cluster: cluster transfers need a shared cluster ID set on every server before players start moving.
The most common problem
Save files grow steadily with structures and tames, and a server that outgrows its plan usually shows it as a long boot time before it shows it as a crash.
ARK: Survival Evolved server settings explained
ARK splits its rules across two files in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ (WindowsServer on the Windows build): GameUserSettings.ini holds the server options and most gameplay rules, Game.ini the advanced ones such as breeding and engrams. Edit them with the server stopped, because ARK writes its current settings back into the INI when it shuts down normally. The options tribes change most:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
SessionName | The server name shown in the in-game and Steam server lists (under [SessionSettings]). |
ServerPassword | Password players must enter to join. Skip it and anyone can get in. |
ServerAdminPassword | Password for admin commands, entered in game with enablecheats. |
MaxPlayers | Players allowed online at once, under [/Script/Engine.GameSession]. Default 70. |
serverPVE | True turns off player-versus-player damage and makes it a PvE server. |
XPMultiplier | Experience for players, tribes and tames. 1.0 matches the official rate. |
TamingSpeedMultiplier | How fast creatures tame. Higher is faster. |
HarvestAmountMultiplier | Resources from each hit on trees, rocks and carcasses. |
DayCycleSpeedScale | Speed of the day/night cycle. Below 1.0 slows it down, above 1.0 speeds it up. |
OverrideOfficialDifficulty | 5.0 lets common wild creatures spawn up to level 150, as on official servers. |
ActiveMods | Workshop mod IDs, comma-separated on one line. The left-most mod has top priority. |
PreventOfflinePvP | Offline raid protection: a tribe's characters, tames and structures become invulnerable while every member is logged off. |
BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier | In Game.ini: raises baby tames faster. Pair it with EggHatchSpeedMultiplier for quicker breeding. |
ARK: Survival Evolved server commands
Set ServerAdminPassword, join the server, press Tab to open the console and type enablecheats yourpassword. From then on, admin commands start with cheat. The copilot can run them for you from the panel.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
enablecheats <password> | Logs you in as admin for this session. |
cheat ListPlayers | Lists everyone online with their Steam IDs. |
cheat KickPlayer <SteamID> | Disconnects a player from the server. |
cheat BanPlayer <SteamID> | Bans a player. cheat UnbanPlayer <SteamID> reverses it. |
cheat Broadcast <message> | Announces a message to the whole server, handy before a restart. |
cheat SaveWorld | Forces a save of the world on the spot. Run it before a restart or an update. |
cheat DoExit | Closes the server at the first chance it gets. |
cheat DestroyWildDinos | Removes every untamed creature so fresh ones spawn. Tames are left alone. |
cheat SetTimeOfDay <hh:mm> | Sets the in-game clock, for example 06:30. |
cheat TeleportToPlayer <PlayerID> | Takes you to a player, using their in-game ID. |
cheat Ghost | No-clip through walls and terrain. cheat Walk switches it off. |
cheat AllowPlayerToJoinNoCheck <SteamID> | Lets that player in even when the server is full. |
Can I add mods to a ARK: Survival Evolved server?
Yes, through Steam Workshop. Mod IDs go into the server configuration and are pulled on start; load order matters when several mods touch the same items.
A mod's ID is the number at the end of its Steam Workshop page address. Put the IDs on the ActiveMods line and the server downloads them as it starts; a player who doesn't have them gets them on their first join, which can take a while for big mods. One warning: ARK's 2025 Aquatica update left a good number of older Workshop mods broken, so check that a mod has been updated recently before you add it.
ARK: Survival Evolved server ports
These are ARK's defaults. A GameTeam server is reachable from the moment it starts, and the panel lists the exact IP and ports your server uses, which can differ from this table.
Pay per GB of RAM. Never per slot.
You pay for memory, not seats, and billing can be weekly, so you are never locked into a month the group might not play. Change RAM in one click, or switch the same server to another game. The AI copilot is included on every plan.
- ✓ AI copilot included on every plan
- ✓ Unlimited player slots — we never charge per slot
- ✓ Ryzen 9 7950X · NVMe storage
- ✓ DDoS protection included
- ✓ Switch to another game anytime
- ✓ 25 GB NVMe storage · 160 Gbps DDoS protection
- ✓ AI copilot included on every plan
- ✓ Unlimited player slots — we never charge per slot
- ✓ Ryzen 9 7950X · Unlimited NVMe storage
- ✓ 480 Gbps DDoS protection
- ✓ Switch to another game anytime
- ✓ Dedicated threads
- ✓ Automatic backups
- ✓ Priority support
Hardware & network
Locations
What server owners say
"Honestly didn't expect much from an 'AI manager', but it's how I run my server now. I'll type something like 'why did the server crash last night' and it actually reads the logs and tells me."
Verified review
"I'd been on two other hosts before this. What sold me was the AI manager catching a memory leak in one of my mods and naming the exact one — something I'd been chasing for weeks."
Verified review
"I'm not very technical and setting up servers always stressed me out. Now I just ask the assistant to fix a config, and it either walks me through it or does it for me."
Verified review
ARK: Survival Evolved server hosting FAQ
How much does an ARK server cost?
An ARK server rental here is priced by RAM, not players: $0.49/GB a week on Budget, or $1.99/GB billed monthly. An 8 GB ARK server is $3.92 a week and a 12 GB one is $5.88 a week, with unlimited slots and the AI copilot included. With no per-slot fee, a 60-player tribe pays the same as a group of five on the same RAM, which keeps a big community server cheap, and you can buy a single week to try it.
How do you host an ARK server?
Two ways. Rent an ARK server: deploy it here, pick a map and share the address, with no router ports to forward. Or self-host: download the free dedicated server (Steam app 376030) with SteamCMD on a Windows or Linux PC, open UDP 7777, 7778 and 27015, and leave that PC running. The ARK: Survival Evolved dedicated server guide covers the self-hosted route step by step.
Is renting better than hosting a non-dedicated session?
A non-dedicated session runs inside the host's own game: the world exists only while they play, and everyone else is tethered to them, so nobody can explore far alone. ARK dedicated server hosting keeps the island running 24/7, so anyone in the tribe can log in whenever they like, with or without the host. For more than a couple of players on different schedules, renting a dedicated server is the better fit.
How many players can join an ARK: Survival Evolved server?
The default is 70, set by MaxPlayers, and you can change it; Wildcard's own Conquest servers allowed 100. That cap belongs to ARK, not to us: GameTeam never charges per slot. In practice RAM and the size of your bases matter more than the slot number, so add memory as the tribe grows.
Can Xbox or PS4 players join a GameTeam ARK server?
No. ARK: Survival Evolved keeps PC players (Steam and Epic) on a separate network from Xbox, PlayStation and the Microsoft Store version on Windows. GameTeam runs the PC dedicated server that Steam players join, so an Xbox or PS4 tribe can't connect to it and needs a console server instead. That's why you won't find Xbox ARK server hosting or a PS4 ARK server rental on this page.
Why do I get "Lost/timeout connection to host" or "Host pending connection timeout"?
Usually the server isn't ready yet or the versions don't match. A big world can take many minutes to load after a restart, so give it time to finish starting. After an ARK update, update the server as well: on GameTeam, stopping and starting it pulls the latest version. On a modded server the first join can time out while your game downloads the server's mods, so let them finish and join again. If you connect by typing an address, use the game port, not the query port.
How do I become admin on my ARK server?
Set ServerAdminPassword in GameUserSettings.ini (or ask the copilot to), join, press Tab and type enablecheats followed by the password. To skip the password every session, put your 17-digit Steam ID in ShooterGame/Saved/AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt and the server treats you as admin as soon as you join.
Can I move my existing ARK world to GameTeam?
Yes. Everything sits in ShooterGame/Saved: the map save, tribe and player files, the INI files and any cluster data. Upload that folder in the file manager and start the server. The 2023 snapshots of the official servers are a special case: they need the -newsaveformat launch option, plus -usestore for every save except those from Legacy servers, so tell the copilot it's an official save before the first start.
How much RAM does an ARK cluster need?
Budget the full amount for every map. ARK cluster server hosting means one server per map, because each map is its own server process, so The Island, Scorched Earth and Ragnarok together are three servers of 8–12 GB each. Every server in the cluster also needs the same cluster ID before anyone starts transferring survivors, tames or items.
What is the difference between Budget and Premium for ARK?
Both are priced per GB of RAM with unlimited slots and the copilot. Budget ($0.49/GB a week) includes 25 GB of NVMe storage and 160 Gbps DDoS protection. Premium ($0.74/GB a week) adds unlimited NVMe storage, automatic daily backups, 480 Gbps DDoS protection, dedicated threads and priority support. ARK's server files alone take around 18 GB before saves and mods, so a heavily modded or long-running server is a good reason to pick Premium.
Run it yourself — or let the copilot.
Same server, any game.
Your tribe's island, still standing next season.
Deploy the server, tell the copilot your rates and mods, and send the tribe the address.
Deploy your ARK: Survival Evolved server