Dedicated server cost calculator
Say how many days you need a dedicated server and this calculator shows the cheapest way to pay for it here, and what the same machine would cost on a monthly contract with a setup fee. Prices come from our live price list, so they are the prices you would actually pay.
setup feeyou savemore expensive here byThe monthly contract column uses the same monthly price as ours plus the setup fee that Hetzner publishes for the matching model, from €0 to €304 depending on the machine, as listed on hetzner.com on 4 November 2026. Euro fees are converted at €1 = $1.10 on pages priced in dollars, the same rate we use for our own prices. Hetzner is a trademark of Hetzner Online GmbH. VPS Provider is not affiliated with Hetzner.
When each billing period wins
Our periods are priced from the monthly rate: a day costs about 16% of a month, a week about half, three months are 5% off and six months 10% off. That fixes the crossover points, and they are the same for every server we rent.
1 to 3 days: pay by the day
Three days cost less than a week does. This is the range where renting beats any monthly contract by a wide margin.
4 to 14 days: pay by the week
Four days by the day already cost more than a week. Two weeks cost just under a month, so even a fortnight is cheaper bought as two weeks.
15 days and up: pay by the month
Past two weeks the monthly price wins, and it is the same price you would pay elsewhere for the same hardware, without a setup fee.
Beyond three months the 5% discount applies, and beyond six months the 10% one. The calculator combines periods when that is cheaper: 40 days, for example, is a month plus a week and three days.
What a short job costs on a monthly contract
A monthly-only provider charges you a whole month even when the work takes three days, and on most models a setup fee on top. On a 48-core EPYC 9454P the gap is the clearest: three days here cost $168, against a full month at $351 — the same monthly price either way — plus the €304 setup fee Hetzner publishes for the equivalent AX162. The server is the same; the billing is not.
That is the whole reason this calculator exists: a benchmark, a migration, a load test or a one-off build does not need a month, and the setup fee is charged again every time you come back.
Questions
How much does a dedicated server cost per day?
Here a day costs about 16% of the monthly price of the same machine, so our cheapest bare metal server is $10 a day and the 48-core EPYC is $56 a day. Most providers have no daily price at all: the shortest period they sell is one month.
Is renting by the day cheaper than a monthly contract?
Up to 14 days, yes, and by a lot once a setup fee is involved. From 15 days on, a month is the cheaper option and the calculator will tell you so instead of selling you days.
Which prices does the calculator use?
Ours come from the same live price list the order page uses, in dollars or euros depending on the language of this page. The monthly contract figures use the identical monthly price plus Hetzner's published setup fee for the matching model, with the source and date written under the calculator.
Do I pay anything to use the calculator?
No. It runs in your browser, needs no account and nothing is ordered until you choose a server on the pricing page and save a card.
Does the price include setup, bandwidth and IP addresses?
Yes. Every server comes with Linux installed, root access over SSH, a 1 Gbit/s port, one IPv4 address and a /64 IPv6 subnet, with no setup fee on any period.
What about virtual machines?
A VPS is priced per resource: $2.50 per vCPU, $1.25 per GB of memory and $4 per 100 GB of NVMe a month, with the same day, week and month ratios. See VPS hosting.