A cloud Linux machine that sleeps when idle, for AI agents

Yes. A shedix machine is a whole Linux virtual machine that goes to sleep by itself when nothing is using it, keeps its files and the programs that were running, and costs cents while it sleeps. It counts your agent's own work as use, so an agent working while nobody watches keeps its machine awake, and a machine nobody needs stops paying for compute on its own.

Other services sleep too, each built for its own job: Sprites pause within seconds for bursty work, Beam and Daytona stop on an idle timer you set, E2B runs to a timeout, and Codespaces stops a dev environment after a set time.

We make shedix. Every other figure comes from each provider's own pages, linked, as of 2026-11-10.

How does idle sleep work on shedix?

The machine goes to sleep once it has gone unused for a while. In use means any of:

• a connected SSH session, or an SSH port forward;
• an open terminal or VS Code tab in the browser;
• a Claude Code turn in progress, or Claude Code or Codex writing to its conversation;
• real work on the machine: a busy CPU or a busy network.

That last point is what matters for agents. A build, a test suite or an agent calling a model all count, even with no person connected, so you don't have to keep a tab open under a long job.

You can also set a sleep timer ("sleep in 2 hours", "sleep at 18:30") from the machine's page, from shedix sleep on the machine, or from the API. For a job that must run unattended with almost no CPU, such as a script waiting on a slow queue, turn on Keep awake; the agents' guide shows an agent how to do it for itself and turn it off when it's done. Our earlier post, Auto-sleep for agent machines: telling busy from idle, goes through each signal and why we chose it.

What does a sleeping machine keep?

Sleep keeps the machine's memory as well as its disk. A sleeping machine wakes in under a minute, and when it does:

• programs that were running carry on where they were;
• tmux sessions, terminals and their scrollback are still there (see tmux for coding agents);
• dev servers are still serving, and the files are exactly as they were left.

An agent halfway through a task finds its shell, its history and its half-finished work waiting. That's what lets you close the laptop and come back the next morning without setting anything up again. In the rare case a machine can't be suspended, it's stopped with its disk kept and comes back as after a restart, with every file in place.

The browser terminal and VS Code links follow the machine after Start, and the page, the CLI and the API always show its current address. A client connected to something on the machine reconnects, as after any network change.

What does it cost while it sleeps?

Beam, Sprites, E2B and Daytona publish rates per vCPU and per GB of memory; Codespaces prices whole machines. shedix sells whole machines with the disk included, so here everyone is multiplied out to the same box. Sprites bill CPU and memory actually used ("based on actual usage", Sprites pricing), so their row is the price at full use; an agent that waits on a model most of the hour pays less.

Rows are ordered by the 2 vCPU price. Running, shedix comes out 25–50% below Beam, Sprites at full use, E2B, Daytona and Codespaces at every size, disk included. Per vCPU-hour that's $0.0450 at 2 vCPU and $0.0525 from 4 vCPU, with memory and disk in the price.

The idle hour is where these services really differ:

Asleep, shedix keeps its memory and every running program; services that charge only for storage cost less while idle, and by default most of them keep files only. A machine left on over a weekend costs one idle stretch at the running price, then cents until someone comes back. Our post on the cost of an always-on agent box works through a month, and the pricing page has every machine.

How do the others handle idle machines?

As of 2026-11-10, from each service's own docs:

What counts as idle on each?

This matters most for an agent that works while nobody watches.

• Sprites count a running command, a session producing output, an open connection to the Sprite's URL or a service handling traffic, and pause about 30 seconds after that stops. For a background agent, Fly.io's docs suggest a Tasks hold refreshed with a heartbeat.
• Beam VMs count foreground CLI commands, SSH and tunnels, open desktop or terminal connections, and SDK calls. Beam's lifecycle docs say a command running inside isn't a signal on its own, so unattended jobs need --ttl 0 or a keep_alive() lease.
• Daytona counts previews, SSH connections and Toolbox API calls. Its sandbox docs say background scripts without outside interaction don't reset the timer.
• E2B runs a sandbox until its timeout, then kills it, or pauses it if you set onTimeout to pause. E2B's pricing caps a run at 1 hour on Hobby and 24 hours on Pro.
• Codespaces counts typing, the mouse and terminal input or output. GitHub's lifecycle docs say every codespace also stops after 12 hours.
• shedix counts the work as well as the person: a busy CPU, a busy network and agents writing their conversations all keep a machine awake, so a long build isn't cut off because nobody was typing.

Which one fits your work?

• Sprites for bursty work that's idle most of the time, paying only for the CPU and memory actually used, with a URL that wakes it.
• E2B and Daytona for many short sandboxes started from your own code, paused or stopped on a timer you set from their SDKs.
• Codespaces for a dev environment tied to one GitHub repository, opened in VS Code and stopped when you stop typing.
• Beam for persistent VMs driven from a CLI or SDK, stopped or paused on an idle timer you set.
• shedix for a real computer per agent: a whole Linux machine with a desktop, root, Docker, its own public address and every way in, which your agent can start and drive itself, with a browser it shares with you; Claude Code and Codex come ready, and you pay only while it works.

That last point is what makes it cheap to keep Claude Code running after you close the laptop.

How do I try it?

Idle rules and prices change, so check each provider's own pricing before you choose. To try shedix, start a machine and leave it: it sleeps on its own when you're done and picks up where you left off. Machines run in the United States, and your first 12 hours of compute are on us. Who makes shedix and how machines are kept apart are on their own pages.