> Fetch the index of every Tonbo docs page as Markdown at https://tonbo.dev/llms.txt

# Machines

Last updated 2 November 2026

> Machines are not open yet. These pages describe Machines as they will open; until then, a create answers [`region_not_offered`](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/troubleshooting/manage.md#region_not_offered) (422), “Machines are not offered in any region yet.”

A Machine runs your container image (`linux/arm64`) as an HTTPS service for your agents and their tools: it sleeps when nobody calls it, costs nothing for compute while asleep, wakes on the next request, and keeps its state in a database of its own and its files on a Volume.

## What people build with it

- A webhook receiver

  It records each event before it answers (see [Receive webhooks](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/webhooks.md)).
- An agent with its own API

  Its memory and tasks live in its database (see [Keep data in its database and Volume](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/database.md)).
- A Machine per agent, task or tenant

  Asleep, each costs nothing for compute (see [the example](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/pricing/examples.md#per-agent)).
- An internal tool or an MCP server

  On a port only your account’s keys can call (see [Private ports](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/requests.md#private-ports)).

## A good fit, and not

A good fit:

- HTTP and WebSocket services from your own arm64 image, in any language.
- Use in bursts, with idle time between.
- State in a SQLite database the Machine writes from Node.js, or files on its Volume (see [Keep data in its database and Volume](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/database.md)).

Not a good fit:

- Running a command in a Machine, reading or writing its files from outside, or connecting with SSH: a Machine takes none of them.
- Work that goes on long after the last request (see [When it sleeps](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/sleep.md#sleep)).
- Memory that must last from one wake to the next (see [Sleep guarantees](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/guarantees/sleep.md)).

[What a Machine does not offer](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/limits.md#not-offered) lists the rest.

## Compared with other ways to run a service

|  | Tonbo Machines | A server or VM you run all the time | A serverless function |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| When it runs | From a request until it has been idle a while | All the time | For each invocation, up to a time limit |
| What lasts | Its database and its Volume | Its disks, until the machine is lost | Nothing; state lives in another service |
| You pay for | CPU, memory and disk while awake | The machine by the hour | Each invocation and its duration |

## What it costs

Awake, a Machine pays for the CPU time, memory and scratch disk it uses, at most $0.0861 an hour for s-1, the smallest shape. Asleep it pays no compute, only storage for its database and its Volume. See [Pricing](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/pricing.md).

## Where it runs

On Tonbo’s hosts in `us-east-1` and `ap-southeast-1`, each Machine in a virtual machine of its own (see [Isolation guarantees](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/guarantees/isolation.md)), at the same prices in each. Callers reach it over HTTPS from anywhere.

## Get started

- [Quickstart: HTTPS service (Machine)](https://tonbo.dev/docs/getting-started/quickstarts/machine.md): Create a Machine from a public image, call it, put it to sleep, wake it and delete it, from your laptop.

## Next steps

- [Concepts](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/concepts.md): The words the other pages use: a wake, a shape, its database, its Volume.
- [Run your own image](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/images.md): Package your own program, and what it finds inside a Machine.
- [Keep data in its database and Volume](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/database.md): Keep what must last in its database or on its Volume.
- [Rules for Machines](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/rules.md): What to do and what not to, before you rely on a Machine.
- [Guarantees](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/guarantees.md): What you can rely on: your data, a sleep, requests, isolation, the network.
- [Limits](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/limits.md): How much one Machine, one wake and one account can take.
- [Pricing](https://tonbo.dev/docs/machines/pricing.md): What an awake Machine costs, with worked examples.