The Four Ports a 7 Days to Die Server Uses
The game listens on your port and the three after it. All four are set up on your server already, which is why your friends can connect at all.
4 min read · Updated Oct 25, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
You hand out one port. The game uses four. Yours are set up before you ever log in, so this page is here for the day you wonder why the address on your server page looks nothing like the one in a guide, or why a server you host somewhere else lets nobody in.
The four
With a game port of 27500, your server holds 27500, 27501, 27502 and 27503.
| Port | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Your port | The address you give players, and the one the game answers server list queries on. |
| Your port + 1 | Steam's own networking path. Switched off on a hosted server, and reserved anyway. |
| Your port + 2 | The path your players' game traffic actually travels on. |
| Your port + 3 | Reserved. Both Valve's documentation and The Fun Pimps' forum say to keep the block of four. |
The offsets are not a setting. The game counts up from whatever you set as the game port, so there is no way to spread them out or move the extras somewhere convenient.
Why that matters
A 7 Days to Die server with only its first port open is the most convincing broken server you will ever see. It starts without an error, it registers with the server list, it appears in the browser when players search for it, and the panel says it is running. Nobody can join. There is nothing in the log to explain it, because from the game's point of view nothing has gone wrong.
That is the single most common way a 7 Days to Die server is set up badly, and it is why this is the only game we sell that is given a block of consecutive ports.
Yours are already done
Your four ports are allocated when the server is created, and they are kept together: the panel's own port picker is prevented from handing one of them out to anything else. You do not need to do anything, and there is nothing on the Ports and network page you need to change.
The remote console port
There is a fifth port in the picture, and it is deliberately not public. The game has no RCON of its own, so the panel talks to it over telnet on port 8081 inside your server's container. Nothing outside can reach it, the game only listens on the inside of your own server when no password is set, and that is how it is left. This is what makes the Console tab a real game console and what the Players tab uses to list, kick and ban people.
If you set a telnet password, the game would start listening on every interface instead, on a port that is not part of your allocation. It would be less private and no more useful, which is why the panel keeps that setting locked.
The web dashboard needs a port you do not have
The game has an admin web page of its own, controlled by Web dashboard on the Server settings page. It is off, and it should stay off unless you have asked us for a port for it: it is a second web server needing an address of its own, and turning it on without one simply leaves it unreachable. Contact support if you want one.
If you host elsewhere
Running a server at home or on your own machine, these are the rules:
- Forward your game port on both TCP and UDP, and the next three on UDP.
- Keep at least four ports between one server and the next. Two servers four apart or less will collide, and the symptom is that one of them is silently unreachable.
- Keep off 27000 to 27099, which Steam uses heavily.
Common questions
Why is my port not 26900?
26900 is the game's default, which is the right answer when yours is the only server on the machine. On shared hardware every server needs its own block, so yours comes from a range we keep for this game. Give players the address on your server page, not the one in a guide.
Can I change my game port?
Not from the panel, and you would not want to. Your four ports are consecutive on purpose, and a port of your own choosing would almost certainly land on top of somebody else's block. If you need a specific port for something, open a ticket and tell us what for.
Do I need to open anything in my own router?
No. Port forwarding is for a server on your home connection. Yours is in a datacentre with its ports already reachable; only your players' outbound connections matter, and those work by default.
- 7 days to die
- ports
- networking
- connecting
Host a 7 Days to Die server From $12.99/mo, with instant setup and DDoS protection.
Still need help? Our team is online 24/7 to answer questions.