Run a Discord bot 24/7 on a VPS with systemd

Updated 4 November 2026

To run a Discord bot 24/7 on a VPS, you install Node.js or Python, put your code in its own user's folder, and let systemd start it: systemd starts the bot when the server boots, restarts it within seconds after a crash, and keeps its logs. You don't need screen, tmux or pm2 for that. The whole setup takes about 15 minutes on Ubuntu 24.04 or Debian 12/13.

Checked on 29 October 2026: Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12 ship Node.js 18 in their own repositories, and discord.js 14.27.0 needs Node.js 18 or newer (npm). discord.py 2.7.1 needs Python 3.8 or newer (PyPI); Ubuntu 24.04 has Python 3.12.

1. Prepare the server

Follow first steps on a new VPS first (SSH key, firewall, updates). A bot needs no open ports: it connects out to Discord. Then make a separate user, so the bot can't touch the rest of the system:

adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" bot

2. Install the runtime

Node.js (discord.js):

apt install -y nodejs npm git
node --version        # 18 or newer

Python (discord.py):

apt install -y python3 python3-venv git

On Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12, pip install outside a virtual environment stops with externally-managed-environment. That's on purpose: give every bot its own venv, as below.

3. Put your code on the server

su - bot
git clone https://github.com/you/your-bot.git mybot     # or upload with scp/SFTP
cd mybot
nano .env                                                # DISCORD_TOKEN=your-token
chmod 600 .env

Then install the packages, still as the bot user:

npm install --omit=dev                         # Node.js

python3 -m venv .venv                          # Python
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Test it once by hand (node index.js or .venv/bin/python app.py), check that the bot comes online in Discord, stop it with Ctrl+C and type exit to become root again.

4. Let systemd run it

Create /etc/systemd/system/mybot.service:

[Unit]
Description=My Discord bot
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=bot
WorkingDirectory=/home/bot/mybot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node index.js
# Python: ExecStart=/home/bot/mybot/.venv/bin/python app.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now mybot
systemctl status mybot

enable starts the bot at every boot; Restart=always starts it again 5 seconds after a crash. Your code keeps reading the token from .env with dotenv or python-dotenv, just like on your own PC.

5. Daily use

• Live logs: journalctl -u mybot -f (Ctrl+C to stop watching).
• Restart after a code change: su - bot -c "cd mybot && git pull", then systemctl restart mybot.
• A second bot: a second folder and a second service file, for example otherbot.service.
• Memory: systemctl status mybot shows how much it uses. Add MemoryMax=512M under [Service] if one bot must never take the whole server down.

Which one should I pick?

• One bot, nothing else: bot hosting, 512 MB for €0.69 per month paid per quarter (€0.79 monthly billing), 1 GB for €1.49 (€1.79), or 2 GB for €2.09 (€2.29) for music or AI bots with big caches.
• Several bots, a database server, a web dashboard or other software: VPS S with 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe in Nuremberg, €7.99 per month paid per quarter (€8.29 monthly billing).

Frequently asked questions