Can you pause a server instead of cancelling?

There is no pause button that stops your billing, because a paused server still holds its memory and disk on a machine, but you do have three real options and a way to keep your world forever.

6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

Why hosting does not pause

This is the honest explanation, and it is worth two minutes because it makes the rest of your options make sense.

When you order a server, we reserve a slice of a real machine for you: a fixed amount of RAM, a share of CPU, and disk space holding your world. That reservation is what you pay for, and it is held whether or not the server is running. Nobody else can be sold it while it is yours.

So pressing Stop in the panel does not save us anything, and it would not be fair to charge you less for it. Your files stay on the disk, your memory allocation stays yours, and the moment you press Start the server comes straight back with everything on it. That is a feature: stopping a server is free and reversible, and you can leave it off for a month and lose nothing.

A real pause, where you keep the files but stop paying, would mean us keeping your disk and your slot reserved for free. Nothing on /pricing works that way, and any host that offers it is either keeping the slot anyway or quietly deleting your data.

What stopping actually gives you

Stopping is still useful. Use it when:

• the server is idle and you would rather it did not accumulate chunk loading, mob spawning or mod ticks in the background;
• you want a known good state frozen while you fiddle with files;
• you are going away and would rather nobody plays on it unsupervised.

You do it from the server's page: open My servers, click Manage, and press Stop. Just do not expect it to show up on your invoice.

Option one: leave it running and pay for it

If you are coming back in a few weeks, this is usually the right call and people overthink it. The server stays exactly as it is, the address does not change, your players keep it in their server list, and there is nothing to rebuild. You can stop it so it sits idle, or leave it up for the one friend who still logs in.

The question to ask is simply whether the cost of the gap is less than the hassle of rebuilding. For a world you have spent months on, it almost always is.

Option two: downgrade while it is quiet

This is the closest thing to a pause that actually exists. Drop the server to a smaller plan while nobody is playing, then raise it again before your next session.

1. Sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers and click Manage on the server.
2. Click Manage plan in the server menu.
3. In the Manage your plan window, click Change plan.
4. Pick a smaller RAM size and confirm. The change is prorated, so you only pay for the time you actually use at each level.

Going back up later is the same window and the same two clicks. Your world, plugins and configs are untouched by either direction. Changing your server RAM explains what a smaller allocation means in practice and how the proration is worked out.

One caution: do not downgrade so far that the server cannot start. A modded Minecraft server or a heavily populated Rust map needs a floor to boot at all, and going under it usually shows up as an out of memory crash in the Console rather than a server that simply runs slowly.

While you are in there, Billing cycle in the same window is worth a look. Paying less often is a different lever to paying for less, and the window shows you the exact price before anything changes.

Option three: cancel and keep the world on your own computer

If the gap is months rather than weeks, cancel, but take the world with you. A downloaded backup sitting in your own cloud drive costs nothing and keeps forever, and starting a new server from it later takes about ten minutes.

Export it before you cancel anything:

1. Open Backups in the server menu.
2. Click Create backup, give it a name you will understand in six months, such as final before break, and click Create backup.
3. Wait for it to show Ready in the list.
4. Click Download and save the file somewhere you will still have it later. Not your Downloads folder.
5. Open it and check it is not empty. A 2 KB archive is a failed backup, not a world.

For individual folders instead of the whole server, the Files tab works, or connect over SFTP (a secure way to move files between your computer and your server) with the Connection details on the Settings tab. Uploading files with SFTP covers the client, and the same connection works for downloading. The folders worth grabbing are your world, your plugin or mod folder, and any config you edited by hand. Backups: creating, restoring and scheduling is the full guide to the Backups page.

Then cancel with How to cancel a server. Choose At the end of my paid period rather than Right now, so you keep the time you have already paid for and the server only shuts down at your next due date. That also gives you a window to realise you forgot a folder.

One thing to be clear about: a cancelled server's files are deleted when it shuts down. The backups on the server go with it. Only the copy on your own computer survives, which is why step 4 is the one that matters.

Coming back later

Order a new server for the same game and upload the world you saved. Uploading an existing Minecraft world is the Minecraft route, and the other games have the equivalent guide in their own category, such as transferring a Project Zomboid save or moving a Valheim world.

Two realistic caveats. The new server gets a new IP and port, so your players need the new address, which is on the server's Overview and Settings pages. And if months have passed, the game has probably updated, so check the version your world was last saved in before you restore it, because loading an old world into a much newer version can rewrite chunks in ways you cannot undo.

Common questions

Does stopping my server reduce my bill?

No. The RAM, CPU share and disk reserved for your server are held for you whether it is running or not, so a stopped server costs the same. Stopping is free and reversible, it just is not a billing change.

Is there any way to keep my world without paying anything?

Yes, but not on the server. Download a backup from the Backups page onto your own computer before you cancel, and that copy keeps indefinitely at no cost. You then order a new server and upload it whenever you want to play again.

What is the difference between downgrading and cancelling?

Downgrading keeps the same server, the same address and all your files, and just lowers the resources and the price. Cancelling ends the service, and the files are deleted when the server shuts down, so only a backup you downloaded survives.

If I cancel at the end of my period, can I change my mind?

Open Manage plan again and click Keep this server, which puts you in touch with support to take the cancellation off before that date. Do it before the date rather than after, because once the server has shut down the files are gone.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

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• pause
• backups
• manage plan

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