[Image blocked: My own character standing in front of the Chumash Ammunation, with "IcyToad5630 joined." shown at top-left]
At GTA6 FEED, we have so far written GTA6 news and analysis, along with FiveM/GTARP server introductions and setup guides. Starting this time, I am beginning a slightly different series: a dev diary in which I build a FiveM server from scratch myself and record the process exactly as it happens.
The trigger was simple. I learned that, as long as you only run a FiveM server locally (on your own PC), you can build one with free software. To be precise, both the server itself and management tools like txAdmin are free, and all you need is GTA5 itself plus a free license key you can obtain from the official site. In other words, as long as you own GTA5, you can stand up "your own private server" with no additional payment.
The Hurdles So Far, and Why They Came Down
To be honest, until recently I thought "developing servers or mods is beyond me." I had the image that it was for people who could read through English documentation and write code to some degree. In fact, FiveM's official and community information is centered on English, and there are many situations where you need programming knowledge just to touch a config file.
That wall came down considerably thanks to AI. If you throw an error or command you don't understand straight at an AI, it breaks the steps down for you in your own language. With the English wall and the code wall both lowered at the same time, I became able to actually move my hands and think "well, let me just give it a try." I'm proceeding with this launch work too, asking ChatGPT one thing at a time.
First, I Got It Running — But It's Empty Inside
And so, learning from ChatGPT, I successfully launched a FiveM server.
[Image blocked: The map screen right after connecting to the server, with a character near Strawberry]
That said, right now it is just a bare server with nothing in it. My character is standing alone on the default map — no jobs, no money, no extra cars or maps, nothing. First, I plan to poke around this "empty state" and confirm what can and cannot be done.
There is one thing I want to note. On screen it looks like it's online, and I can connect to it without any trouble. However, this is a different thing from "a public server that other people can join." To let someone from the outside into a server running locally, you normally need a setting called port forwarding. What's more, on home internet lines this port is often blocked, so as-is even friends may not be able to get in. How to work around this problem is something I'll touch on in item ③ of the roadmap below.
What I'll Do From Here (All Planned to Be Free)
As far as I've looked into it, every one of the next steps can apparently be done for free. In this dev diary, I'll try each of them one at a time and record it.
① Enable admin commands (txAdmin). A free management tool; this is the first step to being able to use the server's admin panel and commands.
② Add cars (Add-On Cars). There is a huge amount of add-on vehicles distributed for free. First I want to liven things up starting with the looks.
③ Let friends in (ZeroTier). A free tool that lets people into a virtually shared network without opening ports. For playing with a few people, the free tier is apparently enough. …The catch is I don't have friends to invite, but for now I'll at least try the mechanism.
④ Add maps (MLO). There are quite a lot of freely distributed maps that let you add building interiors and the like. This is the stage of putting your hands on the world itself.
⑤ Add game systems (QBCore). A free framework that lets you introduce, all at once, the elements familiar from GTARP: jobs, money, garages, police, items. Once you get here, it should finally start to feel like "a real server."
Maybe the Real Wall Isn't the Technology
Since I started building, one thing has begun to occur to me. If AI lowers the technical hurdle this much, then maybe what's truly hard about running a server is the non-technical part.
In fact, it's often said that the biggest bottleneck in running a server isn't the settings or code, but human relationships — running the community and disputes between players. You could also see it as: because AI reduces the moments where you get stuck on technology, the weight of this "operations" side grows relatively larger. Whether that's actually true is something I won't know until I build and run one myself. I'd like to keep this diary going and find out.
For now, next time, I'll start with ① txAdmin. I'd be happy if it serves as a reference for people who, like me, are thinking "I'd like to try building one myself."
This article is a record of the GTA6 FEED operator actually building a FiveM server on his own PC. The technical information is written after confirming the official documentation and each tool's offering as of May 2026, but the specifications and the contents of the free tiers may change going forward. FiveM and GTA are trademarks of their respective rights holders (Cfx.re / Rockstar Games), and this site is not affiliated with those companies.