How billing works

devboxes runs coding agents, and a Run costs in two ways: the model that thinks and the machine that runs the code. devboxes bills only machine time: on machines that devboxes manages, and for Runs on your own machines beyond 3 at once.

Model usage stays with your provider

Agents run on models from your own model accounts. Your provider bills that usage directly, at its prices and under your agreement with it. devboxes adds no markup, and a plan includes no model usage. You also choose which models run, and can give one Project a cheaper model and another a stronger one.

Managed capacity and your own Runners

A Project runs its work either on capacity that devboxes manages or on one of your own Runners. On your own Runners, you already pay for the machines, so up to 3 Runs at once cost nothing in devboxes on every plan. Runs beyond those 3 take Runner slots, priced by the hour, so an Organization that runs much work in parallel on its own machines pays for the coordination it uses. Managed capacity costs devboxes money for the hours that Runs use it, so that time is what the plans and credit pay for.

Managed capacity is the quicker start: there is nothing to install, and the work runs in Germany. A Runner suits an Organization that already has build machines, or one whose work must stay on its own machines.

Included usage and prepaid credit

Basic and Premium include a monthly amount of managed usage. Prepaid credit is the reserve behind it. A managed Run's cost comes from the month's included usage first, because unused included usage doesn't carry over to the next month, while credit lasts 12 months. Within your credit, devboxes spends the credit that expires first, so less of it expires unused.

Free has no included usage, so its managed work runs on credit alone.

An Organization on Free stores up to 5 GB: its Sessions' files, checkpoints and workspaces, and its Projects' tool caches. Once it stores that much, new work and continued Sessions don't start until it erases Sessions or subscribes to a paid plan. Work that already runs finishes, and its Review still runs. A Run on Free also doesn't save a tool cache path whose archive is over 500 MB. Paid plans have neither limit.

Each plan keeps a Session's history for a time after its last activity, such as a Run or a saved file: 30 days on Free, 90 on Basic, a year on Premium. Then devboxes erases the Session with its Runs, transcript and files. When your Organization leaves a plan, or moves from Premium to Basic, the longer history still applies for 30 days.

The plans also differ in how many managed Runs may run at once. Runs on your own Runners don't count against that limit: beyond their 3 free Runs at once, further Runs take paid Runner slots instead of waiting.

Limits on buying credit

How much credit an Organization can buy is limited. The limits exist because of abuse: someone who buys a large amount of credit and then disputes the payment leaves devboxes with the dispute fee and the cost of the work. Free buys small amounts at a time. Basic and Premium hold up to a fixed amount of credit. If your work needs more, write to [email protected] and devboxes can raise the limit.

The day of grace at renewal

When a paid period ends, the renewal's payment can take a little while to reach devboxes. While your subscription renews, your Organization keeps its plan and its limit of managed Runs at once for one day after the end. In that day, managed work spends what is left of the last month's included usage, but no extra usage, and keeps starting and running even when that is used up. A subscription set to cancel gets no such day: its plan ends with the period. A new month starts only with the paid renewal.

Work that isn't charged right away

When a managed Run fails because of devboxes, such as a machine that went away, you shouldn't pay for it. When the agent reports several different things that it didn't expect, the Run may have spent its time on a problem that isn't yours. In both cases devboxes parks the cost instead of charging it, looks at the Run, and then charges it or waives it. A failure on devboxes' side alerts devboxes' team, and in Chat, devboxes tells the person who asked for the work.

A Run that stops because of the work itself, for example by running out of memory, is charged like any other.

Refunds

If a charge looks wrong, or you want your money back, write to [email protected] first, as the support page describes. While a dispute through your bank is open, it takes back all of the purchase's remaining credit, and Stripe charges devboxes a fee for every dispute. A refund takes back only the refunded share of that purchase's credit, and costs no dispute fee. Refunds and disputes lists what a refund changes.