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Keeping a room open (keep-alive)

By default, an empty room closes itself to save you money. Keep-alive turns that off: the room stays open even when nobody's connected, so it's waiting for you when you come back.

What you'll learn
  • What keep-alive does (and doesn't) change
  • When it's worth turning on
  • The cost trade-off versus letting a room auto-stop

What it does​

Keep-alive is a simple toggle — Keep room open, under Session options. When it's on, the room:

  • Skips the idle auto-stop. It won't close itself just because everyone left.
  • Ignores the maximum-duration cap. Normally there's a safety cap that force-stops very long sessions; keep-alive lifts it.

It then keeps running — and keeps billing — until you stop it or your balance runs low. Low balance is the backstop: the room stops before your wallet hits zero, so keep-alive can never run you into the negative.

It's a platform option, not a game setting, so it works the same for Minecraft, Counter-Strike, and TeamSpeak rooms.

When to use it​

Turn keep-alive on when you want the room to stay put through quiet stretches:

  • Friends are joining and leaving over a long evening and you don't want the server cycling.
  • You're taking a break mid-session and don't want to lose the running room.
  • You're running a longer event and don't want to bump into the duration cap.

Leave it off (the default) for casual sessions where you'd rather the room tidy up after itself the moment everyone logs off.

The cost trade-off​

This is the important part: with keep-alive on, an empty room still costs money. Without it, an empty room stops after a short grace period and billing ends — see Auto-stop rules.

warning

Keep-alive means you pay for idle time. The only things that will stop a kept-alive room are you pressing Stop or your balance running low. If you turn it on, remember to stop the room when you're truly done.

Turning it on and off​

You can set keep-alive two ways:

  • When you open the room, with the toggle under Session options.
  • Live, while the room runs, from the room's session page — flipping it on while a room is counting down to an idle stop brings it back to active.

One limit: you can't change keep-alive once a room has started winding down (while it's saving or stopping). At that point, let it finish and open a fresh room if you need it back.

→ Related: Auto-stop rules · Managing a running room · Billing