On-demand instances give you access to high-performance GPUs and large CPU configurations with pay-as-you-go credit billing. No subscription commitment or reserved capacity is required — just pick an instance, launch it, and start working.
Launching an Instance
From your dashboard, switch to the On-Demand tab to see available GPU and CPU profiles. Each profile shows its pricing in credits per minute and a capacity tag indicating current availability: High, Medium, or Low. Profiles tagged No Capacity cannot be launched until resources free up. Profiles with no tag means capacity data is not currently available.
Click Launch next to any available profile to start an instance.
You can run up to 5 concurrent on-demand instances at once, depending on your
credit balance. See pricing for per-minute
rates. Accessing Your Instance
Once an instance is running, it appears under your My Instances tab.
From there you have two quick actions:
-
Arrow icon — Opens the instance directly in JupyterLab.
-
Pencil (Edit) icon — Opens the instance detail page where you can choose how to connect, all from your browser:
- JupyterLab — Notebook-first environment for interactive computing
- VS Code — Full IDE with extensions and debugging
- Terminal — Direct shell access to the instance
You can also connect to running instances remotely via SSH using the qBraid CLI.
Instance Lifecycle
On-demand instances have three states you control: Running, Stopped, and Terminated.
Launch → Running → Stop → Stopped → Resume → Running
│ │
└── Terminate ◄────┘
Running
Your instance is active and accessible. You are billed for both compute and storage at the rate shown on the instance tile (credits per minute).
Stopped
Compute is released, but your instance’s disk is preserved — all your files, installed packages, and work remain intact. You are billed a small storage-only fee (credits per minute) while the instance is stopped.
You can resume a stopped instance at any time. When you do, your files will be exactly as you left them.
Terminated
The instance and its disk are permanently deleted. All files on the instance are lost and cannot be recovered. Billing stops completely.
Stop vs Terminate
| Stop | Terminate |
|---|
| Compute | Released (no compute charges) | Deleted |
| Disk / Files | Preserved | Permanently deleted |
| Billing | Small storage fee (credits/min) | No further charges |
| Resumable | Yes — resume anytime | No — must launch a new instance |
Some instance types only support terminate — stop and resume is not available.
For these instances, the Stop button will not appear; only Terminate is shown.
Terminating an instance permanently deletes all files on it. Download or
export any important work before terminating. To keep your data, stop the
instance instead — it stays resumable.
File Persistence
On-demand instances handle files differently from subscription instances:
- No automatic file sync: Unlike subscription instances, on-demand instances do not automatically sync files from cloud storage on launch. Each on-demand instance has its own independent disk.
- Download from cloud storage: You can use the Files tab to download files from your cloud storage into an on-demand instance. However, changes you make are not synced back to cloud storage.
- Stop preserves files: When you stop an instance, its disk is preserved. The next time you resume, your files will be exactly where you left them.
- Terminate deletes files: When you terminate an instance, the disk and all files on it are permanently deleted.
If you’re working on important files in an on-demand instance, download them
to your local machine or push them to a Git repository before terminating.
Billing
On-demand instances are billed per minute in qBraid credits (100 credits = $1 USD).
| State | What you’re charged | Example |
|---|
| Running | Compute + storage | 8.95 cr/min (NV H100) |
| Stopped | Storage only | ~0.02 cr/min |
| Terminated | Nothing | $0 |
| Credit Balance | Concurrent Instances |
|---|
| 100+ credits ($1+) | 1 |
| 1,000+ credits ($10+) | 2 |
| 2,500+ credits ($25+) | 5 |
