Run OpenClaw Free 24/7: Oracle Cloud Always-Free VPS Complete Setup Guide (2026)
The Best Kept Secret in Cloud Computing: Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier gives you an ARM64 virtual machine with 4 Ampere A1 cores, 24 GB RAM, and 200 GB storage — completely free, forever. This is not a trial — it never expires. Unlike similar offers from other cloud providers that limit you to a 1-year free trial period, Oracle's Always Free is permanent. This guide shows you how to use this incredible resource to host your OpenClaw AI agent 24/7 at zero hosting cost.
Why Oracle Always-Free Tier Is Perfect for OpenClaw
Most people overlook Oracle Cloud because they associate Oracle with expensive enterprise databases. But Oracle's cloud computing division (OCI) has been aggressively growing by offering some of the most generous free tiers in the industry. The crown jewel is the Always Free ARM64 Compute instance — up to 4 OCPU (cores) and 24GB RAM total across free ARM instances.
For OpenClaw, this is extraordinary: 24GB RAM is more than enough to run OpenClaw plus multiple AI models, with room to spare. A typical OpenClaw installation uses only 200-500MB of RAM idle, meaning the Oracle free VM can handle OpenClaw plus dozens of concurrent agent sessions without breaking a sweat.
Oracle Free Tier vs Other Cloud Free Tiers for OpenClaw
🥇 Oracle Always Free — Best Choice
4 cores, 24GB, ForeverARM64 Ampere A1, 200GB storage, never expires. No credit card required after initial verification. Ideal for OpenClaw 24/7 hosting.
🥈 Other Cloud Providers
1 core, 1GB, 12 months onlyMost free tiers expire after 12 months and require credit card for renewal. Limited compute for serious OpenClaw workloads.
The Ampere A1 ARM64 processor in Oracle's free VMs is based on the same architecture as Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) — meaning Node.js and OpenClaw run natively with full performance, no emulation layer. Many users find Oracle free VMs actually outperform paid x86 VMs from other providers for Node.js workloads.
Step 1: Create Your Oracle Cloud Account
Go to cloud.oracle.com and click "Start for free". You will need:
Important: Oracle accounts occasionally get flagged for automated spam prevention and require manual review (1-2 business days). If your account is stuck in "Pending", contact Oracle support — it's usually resolved quickly. Use a real name and genuine credit card details to avoid this.
Step 2: Create Your Free ARM64 VM Instance
Log into the Oracle Cloud console. Navigate to Compute → Instances → Create Instance. Configure as follows:
Image: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (ARM64)
Click "Edit" next to Image, select Ubuntu, choose Ubuntu 22.04. OpenClaw works on Ubuntu 20.04+ but we recommend 22.04 for the latest compatibility.
Shape: VM.Standard.A1.Flex (ARM64 — FREE)
Click "Edit" next to Shape. Select Ampere → VM.Standard.A1.Flex. Set OCPUs to 4 and Memory to 24 GB. This uses your full Always Free allocation but gives maximum performance for OpenClaw.
Free confirmation: You will see "Always Free Eligible" badge next to the shape. If you don't see this badge, you have selected the wrong shape type.
SSH Key: Download and Save!
Oracle generates an SSH key pair. Click "Save Private Key" — download the .key file and keep it safe. This is the ONLY way to access your VM. If you lose it, you must recreate the instance.
Boot Volume: 50 GB Free
The default 50 GB boot volume is included in the free tier. Keep it at 50 GB for now — you can always add more block storage later (up to 200 GB total free).
Click "Create" and wait 2-3 minutes for your instance to provision. You will see it in the Instances list with a green "Running" status.
Step 3: Connect to Your Oracle Free VM via SSH
Find your instance's Public IP address in the instance details page. Then connect via SSH:
# Fix SSH key permissions (required on Linux/macOS)
chmod 600 ~/Downloads/ssh-key-XXXX.key
# Connect to your Oracle VM (replace with your actual IP)
ssh -i ~/Downloads/ssh-key-XXXX.key ubuntu@YOUR_PUBLIC_IP
# On Windows, use PuTTYgen to convert the .key file to .ppk format,
# or use Windows Terminal with OpenSSH (works directly)
# Verify you're connected
whoami # ubuntu
uname -m # aarch64 (ARM64 confirmed!)
First thing after connecting — update the system and open the required firewall port in Oracle's network settings:
# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
# Install essential tools
sudo apt install -y curl wget git unzip htop
# Check available resources
free -h # Should show ~22GB available RAM
df -h / # Should show ~46GB disk space
nproc # Should show 4 CPUs
Oracle's network has two layers of firewall: the VCN Security List (network-level) and the Ubuntu UFW (OS-level). You need to configure both for webhook/API access:
# Open port in Ubuntu UFW
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp # SSH
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp # HTTPS outbound (for AI APIs)
sudo ufw allow 7331/tcp # OpenClaw webhook (optional)
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status
# Note: Also add ingress rules in Oracle VCN Security List
# via the OCI Console: Networking → VCN → Security Lists → Default Security List
# Add ingress rule: TCP port 7331 from 0.0.0.0/0
Step 4: Install Node.js and OpenClaw on ARM64 Ubuntu
OpenClaw's Node.js runtime is fully compatible with ARM64 (aarch64). NodeSource maintains ARM64 packages, so the installation process is identical to x86_64:
# Install Node.js 22 LTS via NodeSource (ARM64 compatible)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
# Verify ARM64 Node.js
node --version # v22.x.x
node -e "console.log(process.arch)" # arm64
# Install OpenClaw
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
# If install.sh has issues with ARM64, use npm:
npm install -g openclaw
# Verify
openclaw --version
ARM64 Compatibility: OpenClaw 1.x fully supports ARM64 architecture. The Oracle Ampere A1 processor running Node.js ARM64 shows excellent performance for AI agent workloads — often 15-20% faster than equivalent x86 instances due to Ampere's efficient architecture.
Step 5: Headless Onboarding on Oracle Cloud
Since your Oracle VM has no graphical interface, the onboarding wizard runs in text mode in the SSH terminal. This works perfectly — OpenClaw's interactive prompts are fully terminal-compatible:
openclaw onboard
On a headless cloud server, Telegram is the best messaging integration because it works entirely over HTTPS from your Oracle VM — no X11 display, no GUI required. Here is the Telegram bot setup process:
1. From your phone, open Telegram
Search for @BotFather and start a conversation
2. Create your bot
Send /newbot to BotFather, choose a name like "My Oracle OpenClaw", then a username ending in "bot" (e.g., myoracleclaw_bot)
3. Copy the bot token
BotFather gives you a token like 7123456789:AAH4bF... — paste this into the OpenClaw onboarding wizard when prompted
4. Start a chat with your bot
Find your newly created bot in Telegram and send /start to initialize it
After completing onboarding, keep the tmux session alive while you set up the systemd service. If you disconnect before creating the service, OpenClaw will stop. Install tmux first for safety:
# Install tmux for safe server sessions
sudo apt install -y tmux
# Create a new tmux session
tmux new -s openclaw
# Run onboarding inside tmux (safe even if SSH disconnects)
openclaw onboard
# After onboarding, press Ctrl+B then D to detach from tmux
# Reconnect later with: tmux attach -t openclaw
Step 6: Production systemd Service on Oracle Cloud
For a production cloud deployment, we recommend a system-level (not user-level) systemd service. This ensures OpenClaw starts automatically on reboot even without a user logged in:
# Find openclaw path
which openclaw # Note this for the service file
# Create a dedicated system service file
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/openclaw.service > /dev/null << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=OpenClaw AI Agent - Oracle Cloud
Documentation=https://openclaw.ai
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
Group=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/.npm-global/bin/openclaw start
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
StartLimitBurst=5
StartLimitIntervalSec=300
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=HOME=/home/ubuntu
Environment=PATH=/home/ubuntu/.npm-global/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=openclaw
# Security
NoNewPrivileges=yes
PrivateTmp=yes
ProtectKernelTunables=yes
ProtectKernelModules=yes
ProtectControlGroups=yes
RestrictSUIDSGID=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
# Reload systemd and enable service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable openclaw.service
sudo systemctl start openclaw.service
# Verify running
sudo systemctl status openclaw.service
# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u openclaw.service -f
Step 7: Oracle Cloud Optimization Tips for OpenClaw
With 24GB RAM on your free Oracle VM, you have resources to run multiple OpenClaw-related services alongside your agent. Here are optimization tips that squeeze maximum value from your free tier:
Run Local AI Models on Oracle Free Tier
With 24GB RAM, you can run Ollama with a 7B parameter model (like Llama 3.2 or Qwen 2.5 7B) directly on your Oracle VM. This means zero API costs for your OpenClaw agent:
curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh
ollama pull llama3.2
systemctl --user enable ollama
openclaw config set model ollama/llama3.2
Fail2ban for SSH Protection
Oracle VMs have public IPs and will be scanned by bots. Protect your SSH port:
sudo apt install -y fail2ban
sudo systemctl enable --now fail2ban
Cloudflare Tunnel for Secure Webhook Access
Instead of opening public ports, use a free Cloudflare Tunnel to expose OpenClaw's webhook endpoint securely:
curl -L https://pkg.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-main.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://pkg.cloudflare.com/ focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflare.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y cloudflared
cloudflared tunnel login
cloudflared tunnel create openclaw
cloudflared tunnel route dns openclaw claw.yourdomain.com
Oracle Cloud Troubleshooting for OpenClaw
"Out of capacity" when creating ARM64 instance
Cause: Oracle free ARM instances are popular and sometimes capacity is limited by region.
Fix: Try different availability domains within your home region. In the instance creation page, toggle between "AD-1", "AD-2", and "AD-3". Usually at least one AD has capacity. If all are full, retry every few hours — capacity is released as other users terminate instances.
OpenClaw cannot reach Anthropic/OpenAI APIs from Oracle VM
Cause: Oracle Cloud's outbound networking uses NAT by default, but some regions have routing issues to US AI API servers during peak hours.
Fix: Connect through VPN07 running on your Oracle VM. VPN07's 1000Mbps network bypasses Oracle's routing issues by providing a direct, optimized path to AI API endpoints. This is especially important for users with Oracle VMs in regions far from Anthropic or OpenAI data centers (Asia-Pacific, Middle East, etc.).
SSH connection drops frequently
Fix: Add to your local ~/.ssh/config: ServerAliveInterval 60 and ServerAliveCountMax 3. On the server side, ensure tmux is used for any long-running setup tasks.
systemd service fails: "exec format error" on ARM64
Cause: The openclaw binary path in the service file points to an x86_64 binary that cannot run on ARM64.
Fix: Reinstall OpenClaw via npm on the ARM64 machine: npm install -g openclaw — npm automatically downloads the ARM64-compatible version. Confirm with file $(which openclaw) — it should show "ELF 64-bit LSB executable, ARM aarch64".
True Cost Breakdown: OpenClaw on Oracle Free Tier
Let's do the real math on what it costs to run OpenClaw 24/7 on Oracle's Always Free tier:
| Component | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle VM (4 OCPU, 24GB) | $0/month | Always Free, no expiry |
| 50 GB Boot Volume | $0/month | Included in free tier |
| OpenClaw Software | $0/month | Open source, free forever |
| AI API (Claude/GPT) | $5-20/month | Pay-per-token, depends on usage. $0 with local Ollama. |
| VPN07 (recommended) | $1.5/month | Optional, but dramatically improves API reliability |
| Total (with cloud API + VPN07) | ~$6.5-21.5/mo | Infrastructure is free — you only pay for AI usage and VPN |
Compare this to running a paid VPS: a comparable 4-core, 24GB server would cost $40-80/month on most cloud providers. The Oracle Always Free tier saves you that entire cost — making VPN07 at $1.5/month the only infrastructure expense you realistically need for a personal OpenClaw deployment.
Why VPN07 Is Essential for Oracle Cloud OpenClaw Deployments
Oracle Cloud has data centers in regions like Australia, Japan, Brazil, South Korea, and the Middle East where network routing to US-based AI APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI) can be suboptimal. During peak hours, API response times without a VPN can stretch to 8-15 seconds from certain Oracle regions. This makes your OpenClaw agent feel sluggish and unreliable.
VPN07's server network spans 70+ countries with nodes specifically optimized for low-latency routing to major AI providers. By installing VPN07 on your Oracle free VM, you route all OpenClaw API traffic through VPN07's 1000Mbps backbone — cutting response times to under 2 seconds consistently, regardless of your Oracle region.
VPN07 has a Linux CLI client that runs as a systemd service on Ubuntu 22.04 ARM64 (Oracle's preferred OS). Setup takes under 5 minutes. With 10 years of operational experience and a 30-day money-back guarantee, VPN07 is the most cost-effective performance upgrade for your free Oracle OpenClaw deployment — $1.5/month for 1000Mbps AI-optimized networking is extraordinary value.
Complete Your Free OpenClaw Stack with VPN07
ARM64 Linux compatible — 1000Mbps for reliable AI agent operation
You've got the free Oracle VM and free OpenClaw software — now add VPN07 to complete the stack. VPN07's ARM64-compatible Linux client runs perfectly on Oracle's Ampere A1 instances, providing 1000Mbps dedicated bandwidth to AI API endpoints in 70+ countries. With 10 years of rock-solid reliability and a 30-day money-back guarantee, VPN07 transforms your $0/month Oracle free tier into a professional-grade AI agent infrastructure. The only cost you'll pay is $1.5/month — and it's worth every penny for consistent, fast, always-on AI performance.
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