Where should your Spaces run?

Start on this Mac. Connect a cloud when you want more room. Your cloud bills you directly at its own prices, and Cua adds no charge for the machines.

Checked 2026-10-24.

Only show differences

No cloud bill Download

$0.0114/machine-hour, default machine Hetzner Cloud

$0.0336/machine-hour, default machine Amazon EC2

Price

Default machine, list price

$0/machine-hour

Spaces use this Mac's own CPU, memory and power. Source

$0.0114/machine-hour

cx23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB) at $0.0104 plus its IPv4 address at $0.0010, fsn1, net of VAT. Source

$0.0336/machine-hour

t4g.medium (2 vCPU, 4 GiB, Arm), us-west-2. Source

On-demand list price of the machine Cua starts by default. Disk and network are extra.

Packed: machine price divided by the Spaces it held

$0/Space-hour

No machine bill: Spaces use this Mac. Source

≤ $0.0016/Space-hour

25 Spaces on one cax31; upper bound (25-Space plan limit), 2026-10-25. Benchmark

≤ $0.0116/Space-hour

25 Spaces on one c7g.2xlarge; upper bound (25-Space plan limit), 2026-10-25. Benchmark

Measured. Upper bounds (≤): the account plan's 25-Space limit stopped the packing runs, not the machines.

Cua's charge for the machine

$0/machine-hour

Cua doesn't rent or resell machines. Source

$0/machine-hour

Hetzner bills you directly. Source

$0/machine-hour

AWS bills you directly. Source

Billing step

—

Hourly

A server is billed for at least one hour, and for as long as it exists, even when off. Source

Per second

60-second minimum, for Linux. Source

Internet traffic out

—

20 TB included

Then $1.20/TB. Incoming traffic is free. Source

$0.09/GB

After 100 GB free a month, for the first 10 TB. Source

What it can run

Linux Spaces

Yes

As containers (Docker, Podman or gVisor) or VMs. Source

Containers

Docker on the server. Source

Containers

Docker on an EC2 instance. Source

VM Spaces (Windows, full Linux VMs)

Yes

Linux and Windows Server 2022 VMs. Source

Hetzner Cloud servers have no nested virtualization. Source

Not yet

Needs a nested-virtualization instance type. Source

macOS Spaces

Yes

macOS Tahoe 26 and Sequoia 15, on Apple silicon. Source

—

Cua doesn't start EC2 Mac hosts. Source

Measured performance

Start a Space on a running machine

234.6 ms

gVisor container, p50, 2026-10-25. Benchmark

3.78 s

cax31 pool host, p50, 2026-10-25. Benchmark

2.03 s

c7g.2xlarge pool host, p50, 2026-10-25. Benchmark

First Space on a new machine

—

164 s

cx23, p50, 2026-10-24. Benchmark

105 s

t4g.medium, p50, 2026-10-24. Benchmark

Start a Space on a Linux server you run

—

To be measured

350.9 ms

c7g.2xlarge, Ubuntu 24.04, gVisor, p50, 2026-10-24. Benchmark

Idle Spaces on one machine

448 Spaces

gVisor containers, 2026-10-25. Benchmark

To be measured

Sign-in and cleanup

How Cua signs in

Nothing to connect

Local is the default. Source

API token

A Hetzner project token, kept in the Cua credential store. Source

AWS CLI profile

Profile, SSO or assume-role. Cua keeps only the profile and region names. Source

When a Space's time is up

—

Shuts down, then swept

The server powers off at its time limit; the next sweep deletes it. Source

Terminates itself

The instance shuts down and terminates at its time limit. Source

Sources

Prices are on-demand list prices in USD, read from each cloud's own price list or API on the date shown. Cua adds no charge for the machines.

Cells about what Cua does on each cloud cite the public trycua/cua source at the release tag.

Measured rows link to their benchmark, with the method, the machine, the raw data and the command that reproduces it. All benchmarks.

Checked 2026-10-24: