How to connect to a Growtopia private server

PC is the simple case, because the desktop client can be pointed at any address directly.

1. Get your server’s connection details from the server page in the panel. You need the address and the port.
2. Open Growtopia and go to the server connection option, usually reached from the title screen.
3. Enter the address and port exactly as shown in the panel.
4. Connect. If the server is on the free plan and nobody is on it, expect a short wait while it wakes up.

That is the whole process. Everything below exists because mobile does not work this way.

The Android client does not accept an arbitrary address the way the PC client does. It resolves the official Growtopia domains first, so those domains have to be pointed at your server before it will connect anywhere.

This is called host redirection, and it is the step that fixes most mobile connection problems.

1. Get your server’s address and port from the panel.
2. Edit the hosts file on the device, mapping the official Growtopia domains to your server’s address.
3. Point every listed domain at the same address. The client checks several of them, and a partial list fails in a confusing way.
4. Open Growtopia and connect. The game now resolves to your server instead of the public one.

The how-to-play guides have the exact hosts file contents and the per-device steps.

iOS works on the same principle as Android, and the same hosts file is used. The difference is how you edit it: iOS does not expose a hosts file you can edit with a normal text editor, so the domain mapping is done through a configuration profile or a DNS-based override instead.

The result is the same: the official domains resolve to your private server, and the game connects to it. If you have never done this before, follow the iOS guide in how to play rather than improvising, because a partial configuration fails silently.

The failure is almost always the same cause, and it is worth checking in this order because the most likely answer is the first one:

• Host redirection is missing or incomplete on mobile. By far the most common cause. The client resolves the official domains and never reaches your server.
• Wrong port. The address and the port are separate values and both have to match the panel exactly.
• Stale hosts file. The file was edited for a previous server, or the server address changed and the file was not updated. When you move a server, this needs updating too.
• The server is asleep. On the free plan, an idle server sleeps and takes a moment to wake when the first player connects. It is not a failure.
• The server is not running. Check the console in the panel; the reason is usually written there.

If you are stuck, the community Discord is the fastest route to an answer from someone who runs one of these daily.

Connecting is only the start. The rest of making a private server your own involves content:

• World files define the blocks, items and NPCs in your world. The guides cover installing them.
• Custom items and textures are the content that makes a private server feel like its own thing, and are included from the Pro plan upward.
• Lua plugins change how the server behaves, and can be edited and reloaded in the browser from the Plus plan upward.

The beginner guide covers all of this in the order that tends to work, and the plans page shows which tier includes which of these tools.