Start with a free trial. Plus when you want more.
Hours only count while your server is running, and it sleeps when nobody’s on. Joining wakes it, usually in a couple of seconds; the first start, or one after a change, can take up to a minute.
Free trial
$0
Plain Minecraft for a small group
- 1 server, up to 5 players
- 20 hours of play, at most 2 a day
- Vanilla or Paper
- Go back to any of your last 3 sessions, and download your world
Plus
$25 a month
$5 each, shared by five friends.
Modpacks, bigger groups, more play
- Up to 3 servers and 100 players
- 120 hours of play each month
- Modpacks, mods, plugins and datapacks
- Go back to any of your last 14 sessions, and a weekly download
Big modpacks and groups of 20 or more run on a large server, which counts two hours for each hour it runs. Groups of more than 50 run on the largest, which counts four.
Prices are in US dollars and include VAT where it applies. Paid plans renew monthly until you cancel; a year of Plus is paid once and doesn’t renew on its own. Cancelling within 14 days of buying gets you a full refund if you’ve played less than 30 hours: see Refunds and cancellation.
Questions
What counts as an hour?
Time your server is running. It sleeps 10 minutes after everyone leaves (15 on Plus), and a start that fails never uses your hours.
Does everyone need to pay?
No. One person has Plus and their friends just join. If five of you share it, that’s $5 each. Hours count while the server runs, not for each player, so an evening with everyone on uses the same hours as an evening alone.
What if we run out?
Your server sleeps until the hours start again: the free trial’s at midnight where you are, until its 20 are played; Plus’s on the 1st. When the trial’s 20 hours are played, it ends and nothing is charged. Your world is kept and you can still download it, and Plus starts it again. On Plus you can allow extra hours instead, at $0.25 each, up to a limit you set, added to your next payment. Nothing is charged past your plan unless you allow it.
What happens to a world nobody plays?
It sleeps as soon as everyone leaves. After two weeks without play (a month on Plus) it rests in storage: joining still wakes it, it just takes a couple of minutes. On the trial, a world nobody has played for a year is deleted, and we email you twice before, with a way to keep it and a download. Plus worlds are kept for as long as you have Plus.
What’s plain Minecraft?
The game as it comes, with nothing for your friends to install. Paper runs too, without plugins. Mods, plugins, modpacks and datapacks come with Plus.
Can I cancel?
Any time, from your account. You keep Plus until the end of the month you paid for. Your worlds stay; a modded one waits, whole, until you have Plus again. A year can be stopped early too: after its first 14 days, you get back each whole month left.
Bedrock or consoles?
Not yet. Cubepals runs Minecraft: Java Edition. Bedrock support is coming soon, so friends on phones and tablets can join too.
Which modpacks?
Modrinth packs, from a search or a link. A pack from CurseForge or a launcher runs from its file: download its server pack, or export it, and drop it in. Cubepals can’t install straight from CurseForge.
What does it cost to play? How a server’s hours work, and what decides the price.