Question 1

What exactly is an AI Computer?

Accepted Answer

A dedicated micro virtual machine with its own kernel, virtualized hardware, and network stack — booted for one job, destroyed after. It shares nothing with other computers or our hosts beyond the hypervisor boundary: the same isolation model public cloud providers use to keep customers apart.

Question 2

How do the financial guardrails work?

Accepted Answer

Every computer is created with a hard budget cap, and all spending is prepaid from a wallet you fund. Usage is billed hourly; the moment a computer hits its cap it is destroyed and billing stops with it. Overruns aren't warned about — they're impossible. No credit card is required to start: every developer gets 6 hours of free compute with 1 concurrent computer. On prepaid there are no limits — run as many computers as your wallet allows.

Question 3

How fast do computers actually start?

Accepted Answer

Cold starts land around 120 milliseconds for standard templates, and pre-warmed pools bring that close to instant. Teardown is immediate — the microVM, its storage, and its meter die together the moment you delete.

Question 4

How do I connect my agent?

Accepted Answer

For Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor: run npx @ostra/mcp once and the Ostra tool appears in your agent's toolbox. For LangChain and CrewAI, use the Python SDK — pip install ostra, then ostra.Client() with your OSTRA_API_KEY. Either way, your agent can create, use, and destroy computers autonomously — inside the budget you set.

Question 5

What happens to my data when I delete a computer?

Accepted Answer

It's gone. The virtual disk is destroyed with the microVM and is not recoverable — that's the point. If you want to keep an environment's shape, snapshot it as a template first; templates persist, computers never do.

Question 6

Do I need Docker or anything installed locally?

Accepted Answer

No. Ostra is fully browser-based: terminal, editor, and app preview run in one tab. The optional CLI and SDK are single binaries for when you want to script against the API.

Question 7

What can I run on an AI Computer?

Accepted Answer

Anything Linux runs. Deploy ready-made services — Python, Node, Postgres, Redis and more — on a plan that fits, from small up. You get root inside the VM, can expose any port as a live public endpoint, and can SSH in over IPv6. Need something custom? Build your own image from a Dockerfile.

Questions, answered.

Give every AI a safe computer.