Run OpenClaw on a Raspberry Pi: The $50 AI Assistant

A $35 Raspberry Pi + free OpenClaw software + $10/month for AI = a full business assistant for under $50. Here's the complete setup guide.

OpenClaw has 180,000+ GitHub stars and is used by thousands of developers and business owners worldwide. Learn more →

A Redditor posted about running their entire AI assistant for $10/month — not on a cloud server, not on an expensive Mac, but on a Raspberry Pi sitting on their desk. The post went viral because it challenged the assumption that useful AI requires expensive infrastructure.

They were right. OpenClaw is lightweight enough to run on a $35 credit-card-sized computer while the heavy AI processing happens in the cloud. Here's how to build the same setup.

Why Raspberry Pi + OpenClaw

OpenClaw is a gateway, not an AI model. It receives messages from your channels (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp), sends them to an AI API for processing, and delivers the response back. The Pi handles the easy part (routing messages). The cloud handles the hard part (thinking).

This architecture means OpenClaw runs beautifully on minimal hardware:

• Low CPU usage: OpenClaw idles at ~2% CPU between messages
• Low memory: ~150-300MB RAM typical usage
• Low storage: OpenClaw itself is under 100MB; a 16GB SD card is plenty
• Always on: A Pi draws ~3-5 watts — about $5/year in electricity
• Silent: No fans, no noise
• Tiny: Fits anywhere — behind a monitor, on a shelf, in a drawer

Compare that to keeping your laptop open 24/7 (noisy, power-hungry, ties up your machine) or paying $6/month for a VPS (adds up over time). The Pi pays for itself in hosting savings within six months.

Total Cost Breakdown

For comparison, a cloud VPS that does the same thing costs $4-6/month — meaning the Pi pays for itself in about 12 months. After that, you're saving money every month forever. Plus you own the hardware and your data never leaves your network.

What You Need

• Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB+) or Pi 5 (any RAM) — the Pi 4 2GB is the minimum; 4GB gives more headroom
• microSD card (16GB+) — 32GB recommended, Class 10 or faster
• USB-C power supply — 5V 3A for Pi 4, 5V 5A for Pi 5
• Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi — ethernet is more reliable for always-on use
• Another computer — for initial setup via SSH (you don't need a monitor/keyboard for the Pi)
• An AI API key — from Anthropic, OpenAI, MiniMax, or another provider

You do not need: a case (nice to have, not required), a monitor, a keyboard, or a mouse. Headless setup via SSH is the way to go.

Step-by-Step Setup

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

npm install -g openclaw

openclaw init

# For Claude Haiku (best quality per dollar)
openclaw config set model.provider anthropic
openclaw config set model.name claude-haiku-4.5
openclaw config set model.apiKey sk-ant-your-key-here

# For MiniMax (cheapest option)
openclaw config set model.provider minimax
openclaw config set model.apiKey your-minimax-key

openclaw plugin add telegram
openclaw config set telegram.botToken YOUR_BOT_TOKEN

# Start in the background
openclaw gateway start

# Or use systemd for auto-start on boot
sudo openclaw service install
sudo systemctl enable openclaw
sudo systemctl start openclaw

Choosing Your AI Model (Budget Options)

The AI model is your only ongoing cost. Here are the best budget options:

Best value: Claude Haiku 4.5 gives the best quality-per-dollar. For absolute minimum cost, GPT-4o mini or Gemini Flash are hard to beat.

Can you run local models on the Pi? Technically yes, via Ollama. A Pi 5 with 8GB RAM can run tiny models (1-3B parameters). But response times are 10-30 seconds and quality is noticeably worse. Cloud APIs are better in every way except privacy — and since OpenClaw is self-hosted, your data stays on your Pi anyway.

Performance Benchmarks

Real-world performance on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) with Claude Haiku 4.5:

The bottleneck is the AI API response time (~0.5-1.5 seconds), not the Pi itself. For most use cases — personal assistant, small business bot, community management — a Pi is indistinguishable from a cloud server.

The $10/Month Reddit Story

A Reddit user posted in r/selfhosted about their OpenClaw setup:

"Running OpenClaw on a Pi 4 with MiniMax API. Total cost: $10/month. It handles my Telegram bot, manages my calendar, triages my email, and even responds to customer questions on WhatsApp. I used to pay $200/month for a virtual assistant who did less."

The post generated hundreds of comments, with many users sharing their own Pi-based setups. Common themes:

• Most users spend $8-15/month on API costs
• Pi 4 is the most popular hardware choice
• Telegram is the most popular channel for personal use
• Several users run OpenClaw alongside Pi-hole, Home Assistant, and other services on the same Pi
• Power consumption is negligible (~$4-5/year in electricity)

The key insight: you don't need expensive hardware to run a capable AI assistant. The intelligence comes from the cloud model; the Pi just needs to be a reliable messenger.

Tips and Optimization

Keep it cool

A Pi running 24/7 benefits from a basic heatsink ($3-5). The Pi 5 especially benefits from active cooling under sustained load. For OpenClaw's lightweight workload, passive heatsinks are usually sufficient.

Use ethernet over Wi-Fi

For always-on reliability, plug in an ethernet cable. Wi-Fi can drop connections, especially on Pi 4. Ethernet is rock-solid and has lower latency.

Set up automatic backups

SD cards can fail. Set up a weekly backup of your OpenClaw config:

crontab -e
# Add this line for weekly backup
0 3 * * 0 tar -czf /home/pi/openclaw-backup-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).tar.gz ~/.openclaw

Run alongside other services

A Pi 4 (4GB) can comfortably run OpenClaw alongside Pi-hole (ad blocking), Home Assistant (home automation), or a Wireguard VPN. OpenClaw's ~250MB RAM footprint leaves plenty of room.

Monitor remotely

Check on your Pi from anywhere:

# Check OpenClaw status
openclaw gateway status

# Check system resources
htop

# Check logs
openclaw logs --tail 50

What Can Your $50 AI Assistant Actually Do?

Running on a Pi doesn't limit OpenClaw's capabilities at all. Your $10/month assistant can:

• Manage email: Triage inbox, draft responses, flag urgent messages
• Handle customer support: Respond to questions on Telegram, WhatsApp, or Discord
• Schedule meetings: Check availability, propose times, send invites
• Create content: Draft blog posts, social media updates, newsletters
• Research: Search the web, summarize articles, compile reports
• Manage files: Organize documents, read spreadsheets, generate reports

For a full list, see our 15 best OpenClaw use cases — every single one works on a Pi.