The short answer
Sign in to the BeamMP Keymaster with Discord, open Keys, press the green plus, label
the key and copy it. Put it between the quotes on the AuthKey line in
ServerConfig.toml, or in the Auth Key field of your hosting panel, then restart. One
key runs one server at a time. In October 2026 the Keymaster is offline while BeamMP moves key
management to a new accounts system: existing keys still work, and a server without one can run
with Private = true.
Key points
- The auth key is what registers your server with the BeamMP network and puts it in the server list.
- You get it from the Keymaster, signed in with Discord. Players' BeamMP accounts are a different thing.
- One key, one running server. A second server on the same key disconnects the first.
- Keys per account are limited; more come with supporting the project.
- Never share it. Anyone holding the key can run a server under your name.
- The Keymaster is being retired. This page is dated so you can tell how current it is.
Keymaster status, October 2026
Checked 16 October 2026. keymaster.beammp.com shows a maintenance notice: sign-in and key management are unavailable, servers can keep running but only in private mode, and updates are posted on the BeamMP Discord. BeamMP has told server owners that the original Keymaster will not return in its current form and that key management is moving into its new accounts portal. Existing keys continue to work. No dates have been given.
What that means in practice, until the new portal is live:
- You already have a key
- Nothing changes. Keep a copy of it somewhere safe, because you may not be able to view it in the old Keymaster, and carry on. Your server registers and lists as before once the backend is up.
- You have no key yet
- You may not be able to create one until the new portal opens. Run the server with
Private = trueand give friends the IP and port for Direct Connect. The guide section on running without a key covers the detail. - Your public server restarted and is stuck
- A public server that restarts while the backend is down can sit at "still starting" and kick players. Set
Private = true, restart once, and it will come up. - You see heartbeat warnings
Backend failed to respond to a heartbeatis a listing warning, not a failure. The server is fine.
We will update this section when the accounts portal launches and the steps below change. The steps as written are the Keymaster steps, and they have been stable for years; the new portal is expected to keep the same idea, a Discord-linked account that issues per-server keys.
Key, account or login? Three things people mix up
Most "BeamMP key not working" problems start with the wrong thing being typed into the wrong box, because BeamMP has three different credentials and the words overlap.
- The auth key
- A long code that belongs to one server. It goes in
ServerConfig.tomlor the hosting panel. Players never see it or type it. This is what this guide is about. - The Keymaster login
- For server owners. You sign in with Discord to create and manage keys. There is no Keymaster password; if a site asks you for one, it is not the Keymaster.
- A BeamMP account
- For players. The launcher asks you to register or log in the first time you join a server, and that account is what identifies you in game. It has nothing to do with server keys, and an account login problem is a launcher problem, not a key problem.
How to get a BeamMP auth key
-
Sign in to the Keymaster with Discord
Open keymaster.beammp.com and choose the Discord login. Discord is the only sign-in method; it is there to stop spam, and you will need a Discord account before you start.
-
Open Keys and press the green plus
Click Keys in the menu on the left. The green + in the top right creates a new key.
-
Label it
The Server Name field here is just a label so you can tell your keys apart. The name players see in the server list comes from
Namein your config, not from here. Older guides show a second field asking for your server's IP without the port: fill it in if the form asks, otherwise ignore it. -
Copy the key and keep it
Click the clipboard icon next to the Key field and paste the key into a password manager or a text file you will not lose. You can come back to the Keys page to see it again, but right now that page is not guaranteed to be available.
Do not share the key, post it in a screenshot or paste it into a Discord help channel. Anyone who has it can run a server as you, and anything that server does is tied to your account.
Where the key goes
On a server you run yourself
-
Stop the server
The file is read on start, so changes while it is running do nothing until the next restart.
-
Edit ServerConfig.toml
Open it in a plain text editor and find the
AuthKeyline near the top. Put the key between the quotes, with no spaces either side:AuthKey = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" -
Save and start
Start the server and watch the log. If it stays up without an
[ERROR]line, the key was accepted.
On a hosted server
Every hosting panel has an Auth Key field, sometimes labelled License key or Authentication Key.
Stop the server, paste the key in, save, start. The panel writes the same AuthKey
line into ServerConfig.toml for you. On many hosts, including ours, the panel owns
that file so it can enforce the slot count your plan includes; edit through the field rather than
the file. If the field is in a Startup or Config tab rather than the main settings page, that is
where to look.
Key rules and limits
- One key, one server
- A key can be active on one running server at a time. Start a second server with it and the first drops off the network. Two servers need two keys.
- Keys per account are limited
- BeamMP does not publish the number; hosting companies commonly quote two free keys per Discord account. The BeamMP FAQ lists the ways to get more: a donation to the project earns additional server keys, and boosting the BeamMP Discord server gives five keys in total. If you are at the limit, delete a key you no longer use.
- Keys do not expire
- There is no time limit. A key stops working if you delete it in the Keymaster, or if BeamMP invalidates it, for example after abuse or a banned Discord account.
- Deleting a key is immediate
- The server using it loses its registration straight away. Players already connected to a private server by Direct Connect are not kicked by the backend, but the server will not list again until it has a valid key.
- The key does not set your server name
- The label in the Keymaster is for you.
Namein the config is what the list shows.
Errors and what they mean
No AuthKey specified in the "ServerConfig.toml" file- The
AuthKeyvalue is empty. The server prints this and closes after ten seconds. Paste the key in and start again. Note that the field has to contain some text for the server to start at all. Backend system refused server! Check your AuthKey- The key is invalid, has been deleted, or is already running another server. Check for stray spaces or a missing character, confirm the key exists in your list, make sure nothing else is using it, and create a new key if it has gone.
[WARN] Backend failed to respond to a heartbeat- Not an error. The server could not check in with the listing backend, usually because the backend is down or busy. The server keeps running; it just will not show in the list until the backend answers. Wait, and check the BeamMP Discord if it persists.
- Server runs, nobody can find it
- Either
Private = true, or the player's search filters are on. Set Private to false for a listed server, have players clear the filters and set the map to Any, and allow a minute or two after a start for the list to catch up. - Stuck at "still starting" after a restart
- Seen during backend outages on public servers. Set
Private = true, restart once, then set it back when the backend is up.
If the log is clean and players still cannot connect, the problem is not the key. Port forwarding, the firewall and CGNAT are covered in the set-up guide.
Running without a key
The key gates one thing: registration with the BeamMP network, which is what puts a server in
the public list. It does not gate the server itself. A server set to Private = true
starts, accepts players who join by Direct Connect with the IP and port, and hands out your mods
as normal. That is how most friends servers run anyway, and it is the fallback the BeamMP team
itself pointed people to while the Keymaster was down.
The official docs still recommend a key for private servers, and once the new accounts portal is open you should add one. Until then, private plus Direct Connect is a complete answer. The private servers section on our BeamMP page covers slots, cars per player and how friends join.