How free servers work

A free server is a server on the free plan. It runs only while someone uses it: it goes to sleep when nobody is playing and starts again when a player joins or when you wake it. Coritan does not sell the free plan on coritan.com, and an order for it answers This plan is not sold here. This page explains how a free server you already have behaves.

A free server stops after a set number of minutes without players. The default is 10 minutes, and it can be shorter while the machine is busy; the line under This server is asleep on the Console tab gives the current figure. A server you have just woken stays up for at least 10 minutes, so you have time to join. Stopping frees the memory for other servers, and your files stay where they are.

To start it again, open the server's Console tab and select Wake server, or join it from the game. Start does not work on a free server that is down: it answers Free servers must be started via the wake endpoint, not a direct power start/restart. Restart works while the server runs.

A wake goes through a start queue, so the machine is never asked to start more servers than it has room for:

• Waiting for a free slot means the start is queued. The banner shows your position, such as Position 2 of 5 in the start queue., and the page updates by itself.
• Starting your server means your turn has come and the server is booting.
• When the machine is full, the banner says so, and the start waits in the queue until there is room.

If your account has hit a start limit, the banner asks you to complete a verification check before Wake server works.

A free server has no IP address or port of its own. Players join at its join address, a hostname that works for Java and Bedrock with no port to type. The dashboard does not show this address yet; the API returns it (see With the API).

An action the plan leaves out answers 403 with upgrade_required set to true and a message that names the feature, such as Databases are not included on the free plan. Upgrade to a paid plan to run plugins that need one. The Port slots figure on the Settings tab shows how many ports the plan allows.

By default, we reclaim a free server that nobody joins or starts for three weeks:

• After 14 days without activity, we take a snapshot of the server and suspend it. A suspended server cannot be started from the dashboard.
• After 21 days without activity, we delete it.

Joining the server or starting it resets the count. To bring back a suspended free server before it is deleted, contact support. After deletion, the snapshot is your way back: restore it onto another server.

GET /api/v1/client/servers/{uuid}/sleep returns the sleep state in sleep and the plan's features in entitlements. For a paid server, sleep is {"policy": "none", "phase": "awake"}.

curl https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/client/servers/$SERVER/sleep \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CORITAN_TOKEN"

In sleep, the fields you need are:

phase

awake, asleep, queued or starting, or the server's status (installing, transferring, install_failed or suspended) when that stops it from running.

idle_timeout_seconds

How long the server waits without players before it sleeps.

sleeps_at

When the server will sleep if nobody joins, once that is certain; otherwise null.

queue

While a wake is queued or starting, the position, the total in the queue and the status; otherwise null.

capacity_available

Whether a start would be admitted right now. When it is false, capacity_reason says why.

challenge_required

Whether a wake needs a verification token.

Each item in entitlements has a feature, allowed, limit, reason, summary and detail. For a free server, the item whose feature is direct_endpoint names the join address in its summary and detail.

POST /api/v1/client/servers/{uuid}/wake asks for a sleeping free server to start. Send an empty body, or {"turnstile_token": "..."} when challenge_required is true. The response is the new sleep state.

curl -X POST https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/client/servers/$SERVER/wake \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CORITAN_TOKEN"

A paid server answers 409 with This server does not sleep; use the power action to start it. A server that is installing, moving, suspended or whose install failed answers 409 with its status. Wakes are limited to 48 per server in 60 seconds.