🦞 I Self-Hosted OpenClaw on AWS for $0 — No Open Ports, No SaaS, No Compromise (Using TailScale)

You can also read it here: https://medium.com/p/5b20907e0fb1 I wanted to run my own AI agent on the cloud — not on my laptop, not on someone else’s hosted dashboard — but fully self-hosted, fully in my control. So I deployed OpenClaw on a free-tier AWS EC2 instance, secured it with Tailscale, and connected it to Telegram using the Gemini API. This post walks you through the exact setup. No fluff. Just what works. Step 1 — Launch a Free EC2 Instance AWS Console → EC2 → Launch Instance Configure it like this: Name: anything you like OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Instance type: t3.small Storage: 50 GB Security Groups: only allow port 22 (SSH) — nothing else open For the key pair: Create a new key pair, give it a name, and download the .pem file. Keep this file safe — it's how you'll securely SSH into your server from your own machine if you ever need to. Without it, you lose access. Click Launch Instance. Once it’s running, click on the instance → hit Connect. Now choose EC2 Instance Connect → cli