---
title: "Rust Server Monetisation: What Facepunch Actually Allows"
description: "What Facepunch's guidelines actually let you sell on a Rust server, quoted in full: the five permitted methods and the DLC rules that get servers delisted."
url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/rust/server-monetisation/"
category: "Rust"
category_url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/rust/"
published: "2026-08-19T07:20:12.808Z"
updated: "2026-08-19T09:17:57.958Z"
source_format: "markdown"
site: "GameServerKings"
---

# Rust Server Monetisation: What Facepunch Actually Allows

Every modded Rust server that survives past its second wipe is paying for itself somehow — a VIP rank, a donation link, a kit store, a Discord perk. The question owners ask before they set any of it up is the same one every time: **what is Facepunch actually going to let me sell, and what gets my server pulled out of the server browser?**

There is a real answer, and it is published. Facepunch maintains a short document called the *Community Server and Hosting Guidelines* that says in plain terms what you may monetise and what you may not. Most of what circulates in Discord servers and hosting blogs is a garbled retelling of it, and some of that retelling is simply wrong.

This page quotes the guidelines directly and then explains what each rule means for a running server. It is not legal advice — it is Facepunch's published position, reproduced accurately, with the operational consequences spelled out.

## The Source, and How to Read This Page

Everything quoted below comes from one document:

**[facepunch.com/legal/servers](https://facepunch.com/legal/servers)** — Facepunch Studios, *Community Server and Hosting Guidelines*. Last updated: **15 July 2025** (the date shown on the page itself).

> [!IMPORTANT] Quoted blocks are Facepunch's words, not ours
> Every plain indented quotation block on this page is copied from the guidelines word for word. The labelled callouts like this one, and all the ordinary body text, are our reading of what those words mean in practice. If the two ever seem to disagree, the quote wins — and so does the live page, which Facepunch can change at any time.

That last point is in the document itself:

> "Once we change these guidelines, it will become legally binding as soon as it's posted online"

So check the date on the link before you rely on anything written here, or anywhere else.

## The Short Answer

Facepunch permits server monetisation, explicitly, and names five ways to do it. The rules that actually get servers delisted have nothing to do with *which* of those five you choose — they are about **downloadable content**: you may not lock a player out of DLC they bought, and you may not hand DLC to a player who did not buy it.

That is the whole shape of it. The detail is below.

## What Facepunch Says You Can Sell

Section 2 of the guidelines, in full:

> "Am I allowed to monetise my server? Yes, you are allowed to monetise your Servers, for example:
>
> (a) charge either a single fee or subscription for use of your Servers;
>
> (b) accept donations;
>
> (c) sell cosmetic items, effects or enhancements;
>
> (d) your own Server currency; and/or
>
> (e) have adverts, sponsorships or product placements."

Two things are worth noticing in the wording before we translate it.

First, **"for example"**. This is an illustrative list, not an exhaustive one. Facepunch is describing the kinds of monetisation it is fine with, not enumerating the only permitted transactions.

Second, **"and/or"** at the end of (d). The methods stack. Nothing in the section says you must pick one.

Here is what each of the five looks like on an actual Rust server. **This column is ours, not Facepunch's:**

| Guideline | What it covers in practice |
| --- | --- |
| Single fee or subscription for use of your Servers | Paid whitelist, membership servers, recurring VIP access, reserved slots |
| Accept donations | A donation page or Discord link, with or without a thank-you perk attached |
| Sell cosmetic items, effects or enhancements | Chat prefixes and colours, custom titles, name tags, particle effects, and — read carefully — "enhancements", discussed below |
| Your own Server currency | An in-server balance players buy or earn, spent in your own shop. Economics and Server Rewards are the usual plugins; see [Popular Plugins](/knowledge-base/rust/popular-plugins/) |
| Adverts, sponsorships or product placements | Sponsored signs, a sponsor named in your server description or MOTD |

Section 1 attaches one condition to running a server at all, and it applies to everything above:

> "Yes - you are free to run private, unofficial or community servers for our Games. You can do anything you like with them, as long as they comply with these guidelines, are fairly labelled to players and comply with the law."

**"Fairly labelled to players"** is the operative phrase for a store. If you sell a rank, players should be able to tell what they are getting before they pay. The guidelines do not define the standard, but the direction is unambiguous: no bait-and-switch product descriptions.

## Correcting a Widely Repeated Claim

A claim that circulates in Rust hosting and payment-platform content is that **community servers may only sell queue skip** under Facepunch's rules. Some variants say only cosmetics are permitted. Others draw a line between "community" servers and "modded" servers with different rules for each.

None of that is in the document.

We read the guidelines end to end. It is a short document — roughly 1,000 words including its TL;DR. Here is what is true of it:

- **There is no queue-skip clause.** The words "queue" and "priority" do not appear anywhere in the document. Queue skip is permitted — it falls comfortably under selling access to your Servers — but it is not singled out, and it is certainly not carved out as the only option.
- **There is no community-versus-modded distinction.** The word "modded" does not appear in the document at all. Its only vocabulary for servers is "private, unofficial or community servers", and it defines all of them together as "Servers" in section 1. Every rule that follows applies to that single defined term. There is no second tier with a narrower permission list.
- **The permission list is broader than any of those claims.** Section 2 names five methods including subscriptions and your own server currency, and prefixes them with "for example".

Where the misconception probably comes from is the DLC section, which *is* restrictive and *does* get servers delisted. That restriction is real. It just is not a restriction on queue skip, ranks, kits or currency — it is a restriction on Facepunch's own paid content, and it is the next section.

> [!NOTE] State the absence, not just the rule
> The strongest evidence against "queue skip is the only option" is not a sentence that contradicts it. It is that the guidelines never draw the distinction the claim depends on. Read [the policy](https://facepunch.com/legal/servers) yourself — it takes about four minutes — and the absence is obvious.

## The Rules That Actually Get Servers Delisted

Section 3 is the part to get right. It has three answers, and they point in different directions.

**Facepunch, section 3(a):**

> "Can I restrict access to DLC content on our Servers? No - if it is Facepunch approved downloadable content ("Facepunch DLC"), then players must be able to freely and unconditionally access their validly purchased Facepunch DLC across all Servers."

**Facepunch's definition of the term, in the same section:**

> "Facepunch DLC" includes but is not limited to: (i) paid content packs (e.g. building skins, decor packs, hazmat skins, instruments); and (ii) approved in-game purchases (e.g. Facepunch approved Steam Marketplace skins, items or cosmetics).

**Facepunch, section 3(c):**

> "Can I grant use of Facepunch DLC to users if they don't own it? No - you must not grant access to any Facepunch DLC to players who have not validly purchased it. Servers may not bypass ownership checks or artificially enable Facepunch DLC."

**Facepunch, section 3(b):**

> "What about downloadable content which isn't Facepunch DLC? Yes - you can restrict access to downloadable content which isn't Facepunch DLC on your Servers. This includes any custom or Steam Workshop content which is not officially sold or gated by Facepunch."

**And the single exception:**

> "The only exception to the above is in relation to Servers that are set up for testing of game mechanics ("Test Servers"). Test Servers may temporarily restrict or grant Facepunch DLC access for testing purposes only."

### What that means in practice

Three rules, in the order you will trip over them:

1. **You cannot take away DLC a player owns.** If a player bought the Instruments pack, they get their instruments on your server. You may not make owned DLC a VIP-only perk, and you may not disable it to push players toward your store. "Freely and unconditionally" leaves no room to charge for it.
2. **You cannot give away DLC a player does not own.** Handing a non-owner a paid building skin — through a plugin, a config, or anything else — is the prohibition in 3(c), reinforced by "may not bypass ownership checks or artificially enable Facepunch DLC".
3. **Everything that is not Facepunch DLC is yours to gate.** Custom content and Steam Workshop items that Facepunch does not sell or gate can be locked behind a rank freely. That is 3(b), and it is where most legitimate cosmetic monetisation lives.

> [!WARNING] "Includes but is not limited to" means the list is not the boundary
> The definition of Facepunch DLC is explicitly non-exhaustive. A cosmetic that is not in the examples can still be Facepunch DLC. The conservative test: **if Facepunch sells it or gates it behind ownership, treat it as Facepunch DLC** — regardless of whether it appears in the list.

The Test Server exception is narrow. It covers servers "set up for testing of game mechanics", allows only "temporarily" altered access, and is limited to "testing purposes only". It is not a route to running a public server with DLC unlocked. Worth noting: this exception is lettered (b) in the source document, duplicating the (b) above it. The document also numbers two consecutive sections as 4. These are numbering slips in Facepunch's own text, not extra rules.

## Skin Plugins Are the Sharpest Edge

This is the detail most likely to cost a Rust owner their server browser listing, and it follows directly from the definition above.

Facepunch approved Steam Marketplace skins are **named in the definition of Facepunch DLC**. Not "arguably covered" — named, at (ii).

That matters because a whole category of Rust plugins exists to apply skins to players' items in-game. Search the uMod plugin registry for "skin" and the results include a plugin whose own one-line description is "Automatic application of DLC skins for building blocks", alongside skin shops, skin menus and skin blockers.

Run that mechanic against the quoted text:

- A skin plugin that lets a player apply a Marketplace skin **they own** grants them nothing they did not buy. Nothing in section 3 prohibits it.
- A skin plugin that lets a player apply a Marketplace skin **they do not own** is granting access to Facepunch DLC to a player who has not validly purchased it. That is 3(c), word for word.
- A skin plugin that does the above **and is locked behind a paid VIP rank** is the same breach with a payment attached to it. Section 4(c) also applies:

> "Don't be a dick. Be respectful to other players and our Games and don't do or say anything that is illegal, circumvents paid content, or could harm our Games, Facepunch or any other players."

"Circumvents paid content" is about as direct a description of an ownership-bypassing skin box as the document could give without naming one.

> [!WARNING] Audit your skin plugin's ownership behaviour before wipe day
> The risk is not the plugin category, it is the configuration. Check whether your skin plugin enforces an ownership check against the player's Steam inventory, or whether it serves any skin ID to anyone. Where the plugin offers both modes, the ownership-checked mode is the only one the guidelines support. Where it offers no ownership check at all, the conservative reading is that it should not be running on a public server.

The mirror case is just as real and gets less attention: **do not restrict skins players already own.** A server that hides DLC building skins behind a donor rank breaches 3(a) — "freely and unconditionally... across all Servers" — even though it never gave anything away.

## Where the Wording Is Genuinely Ambiguous

Some of this document is precise. Some of it is not, and pretending otherwise would be more useful to us than to you. Three places where a careful owner should read conservatively.

### "cosmetic items, effects or enhancements"

The permitted method at 2(c) is:

> "sell cosmetic items, effects or enhancements;"

**"Enhancements" is undefined.** Read narrowly, the whole phrase is governed by "cosmetic" and covers visual perks only. Read broadly, "enhancements" is a separate noun that would cover gameplay advantages — increased gather rates, larger backpacks, better kits — which is precisely what most VIP ranks sell.

Nothing else in the guidelines prohibits selling gameplay advantage, and section 2 is an illustrative list rather than a closed one, so the broad reading is not a stretch. **The conservative position is that pay-for-advantage is not prohibited by this document, but is not clearly blessed by it either.** What section 1 does require is that the server be "fairly labelled to players" — so if you sell advantage, label the server as modded and say plainly what the rank does.

### "at our discretion"

> "Community Servers are at our discretion. Your ability to create, use and distribute Servers based on our Games is at our discretion and we can withdraw it in the future, particularly for the protection of Facepunch or our Games."

Complying with every rule above is not a guarantee. Facepunch reserves a general discretion, softened in the next sentence — "we don't plan to use this arbitrarily or randomly, there has to be sufficient reason" — but reserved all the same. Build your server's economy so that it survives losing any one revenue line.

### The guidelines are not the top of the stack

> "In addition to these guidelines there are our full legal rules in the Facepunch Terms of Service and Facepunch Privacy Policy at www.facepunch.com/legal. If there is any conflict between these guidelines and those documents, then those documents win."

The [Terms of Service](https://facepunch.com/legal/tos) override the server guidelines where they conflict. Anything you read here or elsewhere about the server guidelines is subject to that.

## Selling Plugins and Mods Is a Separate Document

If your question is about selling a *plugin* rather than a server perk, the server guidelines are the wrong page. Their own TL;DR points elsewhere:

> "There are separate guidelines about modding our Games (www.facepunch.com/legal/modding)."

That document is short and direct on the point:

> "Can I sell a Mod I own? Yes."

Note its date, though: the [modding guidelines](https://facepunch.com/legal/modding) are dated **28 August 2019**, six years older than the server guidelines. They also require, at 5(a), that a mod be clearly marked unofficial.

## What Happens If You Get It Wrong

The consequences are stated plainly:

> "Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in delisting from the server browser or other sanctions (for example, serious or repeated breach of these guidelines may result in a game ban) and may also be considered a breach of the Facepunch Terms of Service."

Delisting is the first-order penalty and, for a public server, the fatal one. A Rust server that is not in the server browser has no discovery mechanism at all — your population is whoever already has your IP saved. Game bans are reserved for "serious or repeated breach".

One related obligation sits at 4(a):

> "Don't call it 'official'. It should be clear that your Server is unofficial - don't pretend to be us."

That covers your store as well as your server name. A donation page styled to look like a Facepunch storefront is exactly the thing this clause is about.

## The Practical Layer: How a Purchase Reaches Your Server

None of the above tells you how a payment turns into a perk. The chain is the same on every Rust server regardless of what you sell:

**Payment clears → your store fires a webhook or RCON command → the server grants a permission → the plugin behind that permission changes what the player can do.**

The last two steps are the ones you configure, and they are pure permissions work. A VIP rank is not a special object in Rust — it is a group in Oxide or Carbon with permissions attached to it:

```
> oxide.usergroup add 76561197960287930 vip
```

Revoking on expiry or a chargeback is the same command in reverse:

```
> oxide.usergroup remove 76561197960287930 vip
```

[Oxide Permissions 101](/knowledge-base/rust/oxide-permissions-101/) covers group setup, ranks, wildcards and auditing in full; do not build a store until that structure exists, because every perk you sell has to hang off a permission node.

### Taking payment

Facepunch does not care which storefront you use: the guidelines name no payment provider, processor or platform anywhere in their thousand words. What you may sell is settled above; the services below are only the tooling that collects the money and fires the command.

Three publish Rust support on their own sites:

- **[Tebex](https://www.tebex.io/)** — Rust is a supported title, with an [Oxide plugin integration](https://docs.tebex.io/creators/tebex-control-panel/game-servers/rust) and a self-hosted [RCON adapter](https://docs.tebex.io/creators/tebex-control-panel/game-servers/rcon-adapter) as an alternative.
- **[PayNow](https://paynow.gg/game-servers)** — names Rust among the games it officially supports, delivered through its own server plugin.
- **[CraftingStore](https://craftingstore.net/)** — lists Rust, integrating over Steam login, RCON and uMod.

We are not affiliated with any of them and are not ranking them. Each publishes its own pricing and its own acceptable-use rules; those rules are the platform's, not Facepunch's, and can be stricter than the guidelines quoted above. Read both before you build a catalogue on one.

One contrast worth knowing if you also run FiveM: Cfx.re *does* mandate a single provider and prohibits all others, which is set out in [FiveM Server Monetisation](/knowledge-base/fivem/server-monetisation/). No equivalent requirement exists in Facepunch's document.

### Mapping each permitted method to a delivery mechanism

| What you sold | How it is delivered |
| --- | --- |
| VIP rank / subscription | A group grant. One `usergroup add` puts a player into every perk at once |
| Kits and loadouts | A permission node on the kit, granted to the group — see [How to setup Rust kits](/knowledge-base/rust/rust-kits-guide/) |
| Server currency | A balance credited through your economy plugin, spent in your own shop |
| Cosmetic perks | Chat prefixes, colours and titles, granted per group |
| Queue skip / reserved slot | A plugin permission node, or Rust's built-in skip-queue list |

On that last row: Rust has a native skip-queue mechanism, documented on the [Rust wiki](https://wiki.facepunch.com/rust/Creating_a_hidden_whitelisted_server) as `global.skipqueueid <id> [name] [note]`, with entries stored in `users.cfg` alongside admins. That wiki page carries no update date, so confirm the command still behaves as described on your own server console before you sell against it. Most servers deliver queue priority through a plugin permission instead, which keeps it inside the same group structure as everything else.

### Four things that break stores in practice

- **Key purchases on SteamID64, never display names.** Names change; the ID does not. A grant against a name is a support ticket waiting to happen, and article [290](/knowledge-base/rust/oxide-permissions-101/) has the syntax for both.
- **Your payment records are the source of truth; the permission database is a cache.** If `oxide/data/` is ever lost or reset, you must be able to rebuild every active perk from your store's records. Servers that cannot do this end up refunding.
- **Permissions survive map wipes, and that surprises people in both directions.** A map wipe and a blueprint wipe leave the permission data alone, so VIP carries over automatically. Deleting `oxide/data/` does not. Decide which behaviour you are selling and say so on the product page — this is the single most common support question after a [wipe](/knowledge-base/rust/wipe-day-guide/).
- **Subscriptions need an expiry job.** Nothing in Oxide expires a group membership on its own. Either your store issues the revoke on cancellation, or you run a scheduled reconciliation against your payment records. Without one, every lapsed subscriber keeps their rank forever.

## A Pre-Launch Audit

Before you take a first payment, walk this list against your live server:

1. **Does any plugin apply Facepunch DLC — building skins, decor, hazmat skins, instruments, or approved Marketplace skins — to players who do not own it?** If yes, that is the delisting risk. Fix it first.
2. **Does any perk restrict DLC a player already owns?** Owned DLC has to work "freely and unconditionally".
3. **Is every paid perk backed by a permission node**, so it can be granted and revoked cleanly?
4. **Is the server labelled honestly** — modded rather than implied-vanilla, unofficial rather than implied-Facepunch?
5. **Can you rebuild every active perk from payment records** if the permission database disappears?
6. **Is there a revoke path** for refunds, chargebacks and lapsed subscriptions?
7. **Re-read [the guidelines](https://facepunch.com/legal/servers)** and check the date at the top against the one quoted on this page. If it has moved, the document has changed.

## What to Read Next

- [Oxide Permissions 101](/knowledge-base/rust/oxide-permissions-101/) — the group structure every paid perk hangs off.
- [How to setup Rust kits](/knowledge-base/rust/rust-kits-guide/) — permission-gated kits, the most common VIP deliverable.
- [Popular Plugins](/knowledge-base/rust/popular-plugins/) — Economics and Server Rewards, if you are building a server currency.

---

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