Worked examples
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 (422), “Machines are not offered in any region yet.”
Choose the cheaper design before you build: each example builds the same thing two ways, priced at list price for one 30-day month, before the free allowance and after it.
- A Machine that sleeps pays for compute only while it is awake.
- A public port that crawlers find can keep a Machine awake all month.
- Work a Machine repeats at each wake is paid at each one.
The prices are on Pricing, and the Rules for Machines turn the lessons into what to write.
One Machine per agent that sleeps, or one that never does
1,000 agents each keep 10 MiB in a database of their own. 100 of them are busy 60 hours this month, each using 0.2 vCPU, 0.5 GiB of memory and 1 GiB of scratch disk while busy and committing 2,000 times a day; the rest are idle. One design serves every agent from one m-8 Machine that never sleeps; the other gives each agent an s-1 Machine that is awake only while its agent is busy.
Assumed:
- The one Machine does the same total work (1,200 vCPU-hours).
- It keeps 8 GiB of memory and 10 GiB of scratch disk in use all month.
- The databases are the same in both designs, and no Machine has a Volume.
- A sleeping Machine keeps nothing but its database: every wake starts fresh.
| Design | Compute | Databases | Volume | Month | After the free $5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One m-8 Machine, never asleep | $170.00 | $9.49 | $0.00 | $179.49 | $174.49 |
| 1,000 s-1 Machines that sleep | $114.70 | $9.49 | $0.00 | $124.19 | $119.19 |
The same agents cost $179.49 on one Machine that never sleeps and $124.19 on Machines that sleep: a Machine that never sleeps pays for its memory every hour of the month, and one that sleeps pays for compute only in the hours it is awake. The number of Machines adds nothing: asleep, each pays only for its database.
Keep a port private
One s-2 Machine serves an internal tool, using 0.1 vCPU, 0.5 GiB of memory and 1 GiB of scratch disk while awake, with 50 MiB in its database and 256 MiB of files on its Volume. On a private port only your agents call it, 4 hours on each of 22 working days. On a public port, crawlers find it.
Assumed:
- Crawlers send a request at least once a minute around the clock, so the public Machine is never quiet for 2 minutes and stays awake all 720 hours.
- Its Volume holds 256 MiB of live bytes, compressed, all month, in both designs.
| Design | Compute | Databases | Volume | Month | After the free $5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private port, 88 awake hours | $1.29 | $0.00 | $0.01 | $1.30 | $0.00 |
| Public port, 720 awake hours | $10.52 | $0.00 | $0.01 | $10.53 | $5.53 |
The same tool costs $1.30 on a private port and $10.53 on a public one that crawlers keep awake: every request to a public port can wake the Machine, and Tonbo limits none of them. Keep a port private unless it must be public.
Keep state in the database instead of rebuilding it at each wake
An agent with its own API runs on an s-2 Machine. It is woken 300 times a month and serves for 5 minutes each time, using 0.2 vCPU, 1 GiB of memory and 1 GiB of scratch disk. It needs an index: one design rebuilds it at every wake, the other keeps it in the Machine’s 200 MiB database and opens it.
Assumed:
- Every wake starts fresh, so nothing but the database is kept while it sleeps.
- A rebuild takes 3 minutes at 2 vCPUs, 3 GiB of memory and 2 GiB of scratch disk.
- An open of the database takes 10 seconds at 0.5 vCPU and 0.5 GiB, and counts one write.
| Design | Compute | Databases | Volume | Month | After the free $5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rebuild the index at each wake | $2.98 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $2.98 | $0.00 |
| Open it from the database | $0.76 | $0.01 | $0.00 | $0.77 | $0.00 |
Rebuilding costs $2.98 a month and keeping the index in the database $0.77, its storage included: work a Machine repeats at each wake is paid at each one, and its first request waits for it. Keep what it needs in its database, which a wake opens in seconds.