Where to host a game you made with ChatGPT or Claude: itch.io, GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, CodePen, and Convika compared

Your game works in the chat's preview. A reaction test, a memory match, a quiz with a score. Now you want a link your friends can open on their phones, and 5 free hosts come up again and again: itch.io, GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, CodePen, and Convika.

All 5 take a game that is one HTML file. They differ on who needs an account, what a player sees on a phone, and what happens on the day the link spreads. Every vendor fact below comes from the host's own docs or pricing page, read on October 21, 2026, or from a test the table names. Where those pages don't say, the table says "Not stated."

Publishing and playing: account, file, and phone

itch.io is the only host here that puts a store page around the game: a description, screenshots, and donations. GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, and Convika open straight into your file. CodePen opens its own page with your code beside the game.

What happens when your game goes viral on a free host

A game link can travel fast through a group chat or a post. Free plans answer a spike in different ways, and only some of them say what happens.

Two numbers help you plan:

• On a bandwidth host, the cost is file size × times opened. A 1 MB game opened 10,000 times sends about 10 GB. On Netlify Free that's 200 of the month's 300 credits, before requests and deploys.
• On Convika, the file size doesn't matter. It counts page views, so a 2 MB game and a 50 KB game use the allowance at the same rate. Pro monthly ($12 a month) includes 100,000 page views and bills each further 10,000 at $0.10.

Free hosting traffic limits compared adds Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, Tiiny Host, and Neocities. Reading in Japanese? AI で作ったゲームがバズったら covers the same limits.

Is itch.io free for HTML5 games?

Yes. itch.io's Creator FAQ says it "costs nothing to use" and that ads "will never be placed on any of your pages." You choose what share of any sale goes to itch.io.

What fits a game made with AI:

• Players can find you there. itch.io scans an uploaded game to detect the engine it was made with, which helps list it in its browse pages.
• A single HTML file works. itch.io says a self-contained file can be uploaded without zipping it. A game with separate image files needs a ZIP.
• Payments are donations only. itch.io sets every HTML5 game to take payments as donations.
• It can call other sites. itch.io's HTML5 docs say a game that loads files or talks to an API on another domain must use HTTPS, so an online leaderboard on your own server can work there.

What to plan for: the game plays inside an iframe on the itch.io page, after a click by default. Players see itch.io's page around it, not a link that opens straight into the game.

Is GitHub Pages OK for a game?

Yes, if you're comfortable with a repository. GitHub Pages takes "HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files straight from a repository" and publishes them. Put the game in a file named index.html, turn on Pages, and the game opens at <owner>.github.io/<repository>.

• The repository is public on GitHub Free. Anyone can read the game's code.
• No visitor stats. The GitHub Pages docs read for this page mention none.
• GitHub Pages isn't for running a business. Its limits page says it isn't allowed as free hosting for "your online business, e-commerce site," or software sold as a service. A free game for friends is fine.

Netlify Drop and CodePen: a quick link, or the code on show

Netlify Drop gives you a link without an account. Drop the HTML file on the page and you get a netlify.app address. Netlify's quickstart says that link "is protected with a temporary password until you claim it," so sign in or sign up before you send it. On new credit-based accounts, the project then stays private until you make it public. Netlify Free also includes custom domains with SSL, and web analytics kept for 1 day. Projects created on Free since August 19, 2026 show a "Powered by Netlify" badge, which you can turn off.

CodePen suits a game you want people to read and remix. Anyone can fork a public Pen into their own copy. On Free, a Pen holds 3 files, each text file up to 1 MB, and no image or sound files. A shared Pen opens with the preview showing; adding ?ui=preview to the link maximizes it. A link to the preview alone, and deploying a Pen as its own site, are PRO features.

Saved scores belong to the address

Most AI-made games keep a best score with localStorage. MDN describes localStorage as storage "for the Document's origin": the browser keeps it per player and per address. Two things follow, on any host:

• Moving the game to a new host resets every player's saves. The new address starts empty. Pick the host before you share the link widely.
• Games on the same address share the storage. GitHub Pages serves project sites at <owner>.github.io/<repository>, so every game in one account has the same origin. Give each game's save key its own name.

On Convika each page has its own address, like yourpage.convika.page. To fix a bug, use New version from a file on the page's screen: the updated file becomes the next version at the same link, and players keep their saves.

Your own domain on a free plan

Convika: a link that opens straight into the game

Drop your game's HTML file in the box above, or paste the code. The preview link lasts 3 minutes and runs no scripts, so the game won't start there yet. Click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up, and the page moves into your account. Open its private preview on your phone and play a round. Then click Publish. The first time you publish, Convika asks you to Choose how to publish your page; Free is enough for a game you share with friends.

What you get on Free:

• A link that opens into the game, at an address like yourpage.convika.page, with no account for players.
• Stats on who came to play: visits, the sites that sent them (such as t.co for X, or reddit.com), devices, and countries for the last 90 days.
• 1 published page and 10,000 page views a month, with 1 custom subdomain.

What Convika doesn't do:

• No built-in leaderboard, multiplayer, or payments. A published page can't call other sites with fetch or a WebSocket, so a leaderboard on another server doesn't work. A best score kept in localStorage stays in each player's browser. A game that saves with window.storage's shared values, as Claude artifacts do, keeps one shared list on Convika that every player sees; Convika has no leaderboard feature or player accounts of its own.
• One file only. Images and sounds go inside the file, or at https:// links on another host loaded with <img>, <audio>, new Image(), or new Audio(). A game library's loader, such as Phaser's or p5.js's, reads images and sounds embedded in the file, but a file it fetches from another host is blocked. About 1.5 MB of embedded images and sound fit in the 2 MB file.
• No Unity or Godot builds, eval, or embedding. WebAssembly and Web Workers run, but a Unity or Godot web build comes as several files, and Convika keeps one HTML file. Code built with eval or new Function is blocked, and the page can't play inside another site's iframe.
• A bar on Free. Free pages show a 40 px Convika bar at the bottom. The 1-year pass ($29 once) and Pro ($12 a month) remove it.

How to publish a game you made with ChatGPT lists what worked and what didn't in a published game in 3 browser engines, with the steps.

Which one to pick

• You want strangers to find your game, or donations: itch.io.
• Your code is already on GitHub, and you want your own bare domain: GitHub Pages.
• You want a link before you make an account: Netlify Drop. Claim it before you send it.
• You want people to read and remix the code: CodePen.
• You want a link that opens straight into the game on a phone, and to see how many people played and where they came from: Convika.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I host an HTML game for free?

itch.io, GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, CodePen, and Convika all host a one-file HTML game for free. itch.io shows it on a game page, GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, and Convika open the file as the page, and CodePen shows it next to its code. On Convika's Free plan you publish 1 page with no credit card.

Is itch.io free for HTML5 games?

Yes. itch.io's Creator FAQ says it "costs nothing to use" and never puts ads on your pages. You need a free account to publish, and players can play without one. HTML5 games there take payments only as donations.

Is GitHub Pages OK for a game?

Yes, for a free game. GitHub Pages publishes an index.html from a repository, and on GitHub Free the repository must be public. It has a soft limit of 100 GB of bandwidth a month and isn't allowed for running an online business.

What happens if my game goes viral on a free host?

It depends on the host. Netlify Free pauses every project on the account when its 300 monthly credits run out. GitHub Pages may stop serving a site past its soft limits. itch.io and CodePen state no traffic limit for a free game. Convika Free includes 10,000 page views a month; pages stop 7 days after reaching that, until the month ends or you upgrade. In a workspace created before October 23, 2026 (Japan time), this starts on November 1, 2026.

Can I use my own domain?

On GitHub Pages, Netlify Free, and Convika Free, yes. GitHub Pages takes a subdomain or a bare domain, Netlify includes custom domains with SSL, and Convika Free connects 1 subdomain such as play.example.com. CodePen Free allows none, and itch.io's docs don't say.

Sources

• Uploading HTML5 games (itch.io) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Creator FAQ (itch.io) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Getting started (itch.io) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Access control (itch.io) (checked October 21, 2026)
• What is GitHub Pages? (GitHub Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Creating a GitHub Pages site (GitHub Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• GitHub Pages limits (GitHub Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Custom domains and GitHub Pages (GitHub Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Netlify Drop quickstart (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Netlify pricing (checked October 21, 2026)
• How credits work (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Resume paused projects (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Powered by Netlify badge (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Pen Editor (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Pen limitations (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Sharing a Pen (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Forking (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Preview and Live View (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Deployment and hosting (CodePen Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Window.localStorage (MDN) (checked October 21, 2026)