{"rid":"compute/instabox","card":{"rid":"compute/instabox","eid":"instabox","topic":"compute","slug":"instabox","provider":"InstaBox","url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","domain":"instabox.sh","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","vorder":1,"grp":"usable","confidence":"documented","binding":"retention-clamped","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest","egress_metered":null,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-22","stale_on":"2026-11-21","n_evidence":7,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"'Free gives you one 4 vCPU / 8 GiB machine to run every month at no cost', quoted, with 5 snapshots, the standard agent-browser template, auto-pause after 30...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":8},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"instabox","provider":"InstaBox","url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"'Free gives you one 4 vCPU / 8 GiB machine to run every month at no cost', quoted, with 5 snapshots, the standard agent-browser template, auto-pause after 30 idle minutes, and the 2 vCPU / 4 GiB or 4 vCPU / 8 GiB sizes allowed. Pro is USD 20 a month and Team USD 500, each including usage equal to its fee. Accounts created before 2026-10-20 keep five free machines until 2026-12-01","unit":"hours","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","read_on":"2026-10-20","notes":"perpetual-monthly"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"The five-machine grant is a legacy state with a printed end date of 2026-12-01, so the 20 vCPU / 40 GiB figure that circulated in October 2026 expires in six weeks and the steady state is 4 vCPU / 8 GiB.","days":null,"source_url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"not stated","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog"},"interface":["rest"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"One 4 vCPU / 8 GiB machine with persistent files and snapshots is a place to hold a working set between sessions, which a notebook that resets does not give.","limits":[{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"auto-pause after 30 idle minutes on the free plan","source":"https://instabox.sh/changelog"},{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"one machine a month on the free plan, in 2 vCPU / 4 GiB or 4 vCPU / 8 GiB sizes","source":"https://instabox.sh/changelog"},{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"accounts created before 2026-10-20 keep five free machines only until 2026-12-01","source":"https://instabox.sh/changelog"}],"limits_note":"The five-machine grant is a legacy state with a printed end date of 2026-12-01, so the 20 vCPU / 40 GiB figure that circulated in October 2026 expires in six weeks and the steady state is 4 vCPU / 8 GiB.","binding":"retention-clamped","binding_note":"auto-pause after 30 idle minutes binds first: a free machine stops on any job that goes quiet for half an hour, and the five-machine legacy grant that circulated in the Chinese forums ends on 2026-12-01","identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":null,"country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://instabox.sh/changelog","date":"2026-10-20","proved":"quoted: 'Free gives you one 4 vCPU / 8 GiB machine to run every month at no cost'; 'Accounts created before October 20 keep five free machines until December 1'; Free sizes are 2 vCPU / 4 GiB and 4 / 8"},{"url":"https://instabox.sh/blog/instabox-pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"the vendor's own free-tier explanation: 'we pause it after 30 minutes of inactivity' and 'Is there a usage limit on the free machine? No. Use it as much as you want'"},{"url":"https://www.uupc.cn/instabox-free-beta-five-cloud-vms/","date":"2026-10-01","proved":"the circulating five-machine figure, translated: 'up to 5 machines free, each 4 vCPU and 8GB', during an invite-only beta [date precision: month precision]"},{"url":"https://aijp.jizhiku.net/archives/21208","date":"2026-10-01","proved":"a user who received an invite after 48 hours found the 8 GiB plan could not be created and took the 4 GiB plan instead, and reports the running limit as 30 minutes [date precision: month precision]"},{"url":"https://instabox.sh/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"quoted: Free is USD 0 with 1 machine, 4 vCPU / 8 GiB, 5 snapshots"},{"url":"https://instabox.sh/","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"quoted: a real virtual machine with its own kernel and root, Docker and Docker Compose run inside, persistent storage, any port gets an HTTPS URL, pause and resume"},{"url":"https://www.nodeseek.com/post-997124-1","date":"2026-10-20","proved":"reported, translated: 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM, a full Linux environment with root, Docker support, one machine per account, paused after 30 minutes idle with session state kept, and an invite code from a waitlist of up to about 48 hours"}],"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"Two corrections in one record. The count moved from 5 to 1, and the 8 GiB size is not reliably creatable even on the free plan: the Japanese review reports the 8 GiB option refused at creation time. What is not established is whether the invite waitlist is still the entry route now that the product has paid plans; the changelog describes a dashboard billing page and does not mention the waitlist. The changelog of 2026-10-20 states the plan table directly: one free 4 vCPU / 8 GiB machine a month, never billed, with the five-machine grant retained only for accounts created before that date and only until 2026-12-01.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"enforcement","free_tier_kind":"perpetual-monthly","shape":{"vcpu":4,"ram_gib":8}}}},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":8,"unit":"GiB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[1].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":4,"unit":"GiB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[2].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.egress.metered","egress-unknown"],["$.egress.terms","not-stated"],["$.identity_cost.detail","process"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}