Dory is in development. The invite-only beta has not opened yet; prices and limits are planned and may change.

Honest limits

We would rather you find these here than after you have built on us.

Where it runs

  • All computers run in one location in New Jersey, USA, on hardware we operate. There is one location. If it or its network is down, every computer is down.
  • There is no service-level agreement and we make no availability promise. We hold no audit certification.
  • Capacity is shared and may occasionally be limited; limits we apply to protect the platform are never billed.
  • Planned maintenance happens on Saturdays (US Eastern time). After a restart, reserved always-on computers are started again; on-demand computers that were running come back stopped, and paused computers keep their memory. A slot released for low balance is not restored automatically; see Pricing and billing.

What a computer is

  • Linux only (based on Debian 13). No Windows or macOS desktops, no GPU, and no nested virtualization, so no /dev/kvm and no Android emulator. ComputeEngines is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Debian Project.
  • Creating, starting and resuming boot or restore a whole virtual machine. Our target for a create is p95 at or below 120 seconds.
  • No live fork of a running computer, and no templates that start with programs already running. Use private images (made from a stopped computer) and setup scripts.
  • Resize changes CPU and RAM only and requires the stopped state. The disk keeps its original capacity and filesystem; disk_gb reports that capacity even if size changes. Snapshots restore only to matching configurations.
  • One screen per computer, in four fixed sizes. The viewer is noVNC: fine for watching and helping, not for video.
  • Chromium ships instead of Google Chrome (Chrome's terms forbid redistributing it); you can install Chrome yourself.
  • Resuming an on-demand computer can fail with 503 capacity_unavailable when capacity is in use. Always-on computers keep their slot unless it was released for low balance.
  • A computer paused for 30 days loses its saved memory (with 7 days' notice) and becomes stopped, unless a legal hold requires preserving that memory.
  • Disk sizes as stored only grow; deleting files inside a computer does not lower its stored size.

Your data

  • Snapshots and images are not backups: they are kept alongside the computers. Keep your own copies of anything that matters.
  • Deleted computers are purged after 24 hours. At zero balance, computers can be removed from day 14 and are purged on day 21, under the rules on Pricing and billing. Pending payments, review, billing checks or legal holds delay deletion, and during the beta deletion needs a manual confirmation.
  • We cannot delete data under a legal hold. A request that would destroy held data returns 409 invalid_state, and the refusal does not change your billing state. You can still stop or pause a computer when its state allows it.
  • You are root inside your computer. If you stop or change our in-guest agent, the data API stops working for that computer (502 agent_unreachable); SSH keeps working and billing is unchanged.

Network

  • No inbound connections except HTTPS previews, hooks for incoming webhooks, and SSH through our gateway. No raw TCP or UDP ports from the internet.
  • Outbound mail is blocked in every mode (ports 25, 465, 587 and 2525); no exceptions at launch. No IPv6.
  • Your outbound IPv4 address is shared with other accounts in the same tier and changes when your tier changes.
  • Bandwidth and connection rates are capped per computer and per account; see Networking.
  • Do not trust cookies set for the parent preview domain in your app.

Scale

  • Tier 1 accounts run up to 2 computers at once (10 kept); Tier 2 up to 6 (30 kept). Creating, starting or resizing can be refused when capacity is full or you reach a rate limit; you may see 503 host_busy with Retry-After.
  • The largest computer is 16 vCPU / 32 GB RAM / 320 GB disk (Tier 2).

Tools

  • SDKs for Python and TypeScript only. Outgoing webhooks, desktop recording and signed large-file URLs are not available at launch; use the events feed.
  • The hosted MCP server needs a client that can send an Authorization header (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex). The claude.ai and ChatGPT connectors need OAuth, which is not available yet; use cec mcp locally instead.

Money and support

  • No trial: you pay before you use. Bitcoin only; no card and no PayPal.
  • Refunds of unused paid credit from the last 90 days, only to the address that paid, after review.
  • Business and developer use only. Sanctioned countries cannot sign up. Country availability will be confirmed before the beta opens.
  • Support is by email from a small team. There is no response-time commitment; abuse reports are answered first.

Dory is in development; these pages describe the planned service and may change. Questions: support@computeengines.com.