Session sizes

A session comes in three sizes. The size is how much processor and memory its desktop has. Everything else is the same at every size: the desktop, the browser, the tools an agent has, and the 5 GB disk.

Size	Desktop CPU	Desktop memory	A new one is ready in
small (the default)	1.5	2 GiB	A few seconds
medium	2	5 GiB	Under a minute, or about two when a machine has to be started
large	3	10 GiB	About two minutes, usually

Small sessions are kept ready, which is why they start at once. Medium and large ones start cold.

Which to pick

Start with small. It runs a browser with a handful of tabs and ordinary desktop programs. Pick a bigger one when a program needs more memory than 2 GiB: many heavy tabs, an image or video editor, a build.

A program that crashes is not always short of memory. If it crashes the same way at every size, the size is not the cause.

Choosing and changing

Choose the size on the Create session page, or with size in POST /sessions.

To change it, open the session and choose change size, or send PATCH /sessions/{id} with {"size": "large"}.

• A session that is asleep or stopped has the new size at once.
• A session that is awake keeps running as it is. It has the new size from its next start: after you put it to sleep or stop it, or after it goes idle. Until then the API shows the size asked for as pendingSize.

The first start at a new size is a fresh start. The desktop starts from the session's disk, as it does after a stop: files, logins and the agent's notes are kept; open windows and running programs are not. A session that was asleep with its state saved loses that saved state when it is resized. Save your work before you resize.

When there is no room

Large sessions need a whole machine, and there are few machines. If none is free, creating or waking a session answers at once:

409 Conflict
{"error": "no capacity for a large session right now: every session node is full. Try again later, or pick a smaller size.", "code": "no_capacity"}

Nothing is created, and a session that was asleep stays asleep with its disk. Try again in a few minutes, or use a smaller size. Today at most one large session, or three medium ones, can be awake at a time across all users.

Price

The service is not charged for today. When it is, a bigger session will cost more for each hour it is awake (the planned rates are $0.20, $0.40 and $0.80 an hour for small, medium and large), the disk will cost the same at every size, and a session that is asleep will cost only its disk. The create page will show the rate beside each size.