A VPS for trading in India: what your terminal or bot actually needs

What a trading VPS is for

Trading software only works while it is running and connected. MetaQuotes says as much in the MetaTrader 5 help: robots, copied signals and similar setups "require constant connection to a trade server and uninterrupted power supply." A home PC on a broadband line struggles with both. A power cut, a forced Windows update, a router restart or a closed laptop lid can stop an expert advisor in the middle of a trade.

A VPS moves the terminal or bot onto a server in a data centre, with its own power and network, which you reach over Remote Desktop (Windows) or SSH (Linux). Your strategy and your broker account stay yours; the server just keeps them running. MetaQuotes sells its own virtual hosting inside the terminal for this reason, and lets you choose the hosting server closest to your broker to cut latency. A general-purpose VPS does the same job and can also run anything else you need alongside it, such as a Python bot, a store of tick data or a small dashboard.

The usual setups are:

• MetaTrader with expert advisors, which must stay open for the EA to act.
• Signal copying, where a terminal mirrors another account's trades.
• An API bot written in Python, Node.js or similar, placing orders through a broker's API such as Zerodha's Kite Connect.

Windows or Linux VPS for MT5 and trading bots

MetaTrader 5 is a Windows program, and MetaQuotes' installation page lists Windows 10 and 11 as the supported systems. Windows Server, which most Windows VPSs run, is not on that list. In practice that means you should install your terminal, EAs and indicators on the server and watch them through a full session before you rely on them.

MT5 also runs on Linux through Wine, a compatibility layer for Windows programs. MetaQuotes publishes an installer script for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint and Fedora, and says to run it as a normal user, not with sudo. That saves the Windows licence, but you are running a Windows program through a translation layer, so test every EA and custom indicator you depend on before you trust it with money.

Bots that talk to a broker's API directly do not need Windows at all. A Linux server costs less, builds faster and is easier to automate with scripts and scheduled jobs.

How much RAM and CPU does a VPS for trading need?

There is no official figure. MetaQuotes says hardware requirements depend on how you use the platform, and it does not publish a memory figure per terminal. Treat any "1 GB per terminal" rule you read online as somebody's estimate, not a specification.

What is published is the floor for Windows itself. Microsoft lists a minimum of 2 GB of RAM for Windows Server 2019 and 2022 with the Desktop Experience (1 GB for Server Core, which has no desktop), and for Windows Server 2025 a minimum of 2 GB with 4 GB recommended for the Desktop Experience. A 32 GB disk is the absolute minimum. Microsoft itself says to test your own deployment rather than rely on these numbers, and your terminals, charts and EAs come on top of them.

So size by measuring. Open every terminal you plan to run, with the charts and EAs you will use live, and watch memory and CPU through a full trading session, including the busiest part of your market's day. If memory stays near the top, move up a size. On our servers the control panel shows live metrics, and a resize applies new CPU and RAM on the next boot, so schedule it outside market hours. Disk grows online but cannot be shrunk later.

If you trade several accounts, MetaQuotes says to install a separate copy of the terminal in a different directory for each one. Every copy uses its own memory, so test with the number of terminals you will actually run.

CPU is a second question. A VPS shares physical CPU time fairly between customers, with room to burst, which suits a terminal or bot that spends most of its time waiting for ticks. A VDS pins dedicated cores to your server, so heavy EAs or several busy terminals run at a steady speed whatever the neighbours are doing. Backtests and optimisation runs can use every core you give them, so it is often better to run them on a separate machine than on the server that is trading live.

As a starting point on our plans:

Prices exclude 18% GST, and each /mo price covers one 30-day period. The Linux price above does not include a Windows licence.

Mumbai or Delhi? Choose the region by ping to your broker

Every order and every price update makes a round trip between your terminal and the broker's trade server. What matters is the distance between your server and that trade server, not the distance from your home. That is why MetaQuotes' own hosting picks the server nearest the broker.

Brokers do not always publish where their trade servers sit, so measure rather than guess from the broker's name or head office. Set up the server, connect your terminal or bot, and compare the ping your terminal reports, or the time your API calls take, from each region you are considering.

For reference, from our Mumbai region (BOM-1), users within Mumbai see 6–12 ms and Pune around 14–22 ms. Mumbai to Singapore is roughly 55–70 ms, and Mumbai to US East 220–260 ms. If your broker's trade server turns out to be in another continent, a server in India adds that distance to every order, and a server near the broker may suit you better. Our Delhi NCR region (DEL-1) costs the same as Mumbai, so the choice can rest on the ping alone. You can check your own connection with our latency test.

A fixed IP for broker APIs and algo trading

Brokers can tie API orders to a registered IP address. Zerodha is one example: its Kite Connect FAQ says that from 1 April 2025 you must configure a static IP to place orders through the Kite API, whatever your order rate, and that orders from unregistered IPs are rejected; other API calls still work from any IP. A home broadband connection often does not give you a fixed address, while a server has one, so a server is the simpler place to run an API bot that places orders.

The wider rules are changing too. SEBI issued a circular titled Safer participation of retail investors in Algorithmic trading (SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD/P/CIR/2025/0000013, dated 4 February 2025). Brokers apply rules in this area in their own ways, so read your broker's current API terms and the circular itself rather than relying on a blog post, this one included.

On our platform each server gets its own public IPv4 address. Before you register it with your broker, confirm with us that the address stays with the server for as long as you keep it. If you later replace the server, expect to register the new address with your broker.

Securing Remote Desktop on a trading VPS

A server that holds broker logins and API keys is worth attacking, and Remote Desktop is a common way in. Microsoft notes that turning Remote Desktop on opens a port on the machine, and CISA's ransomware guide says not to expose services such as RDP on the web without compensating controls. On a Windows trading server:

• Keep Network Level Authentication on. Microsoft recommends it whenever possible, so a login is checked before a desktop session starts.
• Use a strong, unique password for every account that can log in remotely, and turn on account lockout so repeated guesses are blocked.
• Allow RDP only from your own addresses. Our servers deny inbound traffic by default except SSH on port 22, and you edit the inbound rules for each server in the control panel, so check that the rule for your RDP port exists and limit it to the IPs you connect from. Close any port you do not use.
• Use multi-factor authentication where you can, and keep a log of RDP logins so you can spot one you did not make.
• Protect the account that controls the server. Turn on two-factor authentication in our client area, and invite anyone who helps you as a separate user with their own login rather than sharing yours.

If a firewall change locks you out, the out-of-band console in the control panel still lets you in. For more on Windows itself, see our Windows VPS guide.

Backups, uptime and keeping the server paid

CISA also advises keeping offline, encrypted backups and testing them regularly. On a trading server, the things worth backing up are small: the terminal's folder with your EAs, indicators and settings, and your bot's code and configuration. Keep a copy off the server as well.

On our servers, snapshots are taken by hand and cost ₹5 per GB per month; take one after setup and before any big update. Scheduled off-server backups are an add-on. Network and power are covered by a 99.9% uptime SLA with service credits, and DDoS filtering is free on every plan. An SLA pays credits; it cannot stop a missed trade, so build your EA or bot to handle a dropped connection safely.

Billing matters more for a trading server than for a website, because a suspended server stops your EA. Servers are billed in 30-day periods, paid in advance from a rupee wallet, and the first 30 days are charged when you order. A renewal invoice is raised 3 days before the period ends and, with auto-renew on (the default), is paid from the wallet. If a renewal goes unpaid, the server is suspended 2 days after the due date and deleted 7 days after that, so keep the wallet topped up. There is no setup fee and no free trial, and deleting a server early does not refund the rest of the period, so even a one-day test costs 30 days. How server billing works has the detail.

A checklist before you go live

1. Does the operating system match your software: Windows for MetaTrader, Linux or Windows for an API bot?
2. Have you run every terminal and EA through a full session and watched memory and CPU?
3. Have you measured ping to your broker's trade server from each region you considered?
4. If your broker's API needs a registered IP, have you registered the server's address?
5. Is NLA on, RDP limited to your own IPs, and two-factor authentication on the hosting account?
6. Have you taken a snapshot after setup and kept a copy of your EAs and bot code off the server?
7. Is the wallet funded for the next renewal, with auto-renew on?
8. Have you read your broker's current API terms?

This guide is about the server your trading software runs on. It is not investment advice, and it does not say whether any strategy, broker or algorithm suits you.

Sources (checked 15 November 2026)

• MetaQuotes: Virtual Hosting - MetaTrader 5 Help
• MetaQuotes: Platform Installation - MetaTrader 5 Help
• MetaQuotes: Installation on Linux - MetaTrader 5 Help
• Microsoft Learn: Hardware Requirements for Windows Server
• Microsoft Learn: Enable Remote Desktop on your PC
• CISA: #StopRansomware Guide
• Securities and Exchange Board of India: Safer participation of retail investors in Algorithmic trading (SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD/P/CIR/2025/0000013)
• Zerodha Support: Kite connect API - FAQs