Launching a pod

Launch from Pods in the console, then New pod. Everything on that screen can change later. The pod is yours from the first launch, not locked in by the choices you make here.

Pick an Environment

The Environment picker has three groups:

Picking an Environment sets what is outside /workspace: the base image, the packages, the startup script. It never carries any data, because data lives on the Volume, not the Environment. See Environment.

Or bring one you already have

A link someone shared opens directly to a New pod screen with their Environment version preselected under Shared with me, and a fresh, empty Volume of your own: see Environment. To bring in a machine you rent at another provider instead, capture it with aq import.

Pick a Volume

Any number of pods can point at the same volume; only one of them can be running with it at a time. Starting a pod on a volume already in use by a running pod is refused before anything is rented. If you want the same starting data on a second pod that runs alongside the first, duplicate it: see Volumes.

Picking the machine

What the panel tells you before you commit

The right-hand panel prices the launch before anything is rented:

• Comes with, the preinstalled software for the Environment you chose
• We look for, the card requirement being matched
• Machine, VRAM, Provider, and the hourly Rate
• A running-the-whole-time estimate, both per day and per month
• The vCPU, RAM, and disk you get

Billing is by the second and only while the machine runs.

Restoring on Start

If the Volume you attached already has data, or the Environment you picked already has packages installed, Start restores both before the pod is usable. A pod detail page shows the restore progress until it is done. See Stop, start, and move.

Auto-stop at launch

Tick Stop it when it goes idle and the pod stops charging on its own when you walk away. After 60 minutes with no GPU use, Aquanode captures the environment and volume, releases the machine, and stops the hourly charge. You get a warning at 30 minutes.

You can change this later from the pod, so leaving it off now costs you nothing. Details in Stop, start, and move.

Doing it from the terminal

aq up                          # cheapest card that fits, empty environment, new volume
aq up --comfyui                # built-in ComfyUI environment
aq up --jupyter                # built-in Notebook environment
aq up --gpu "RTX 4090"         # filter to a GPU model
aq up --gpus 2                 # ask for more than one card
aq up --max-price 0.50         # cap the hourly rate
aq up --provider massecompute  # pin to one provider
aq up --auto-stop              # turn on idle auto-stop

aq up only ever starts a bare box or a built-in app. To start a new pod from a kept or shared Environment instead, with or without an existing Volume attached, use aq pods create:

aq pods create my-box --env pytorch-dev              # latest version, new volume
aq pods create my-box --env pytorch-dev --version 2  # an older version
aq pods create my-box --env comfyui --volume vol-123 # attach an existing volume
aq pods create my-box --env comfyui --no-volume      # no volume at all

aq pods create takes the same --gpu/--gpus/--max-price/--provider flags as aq up. Once a pod exists either way, aq start/aq move restore its own Environment and Volume from the terminal regardless of how it was created. Full flag list in the command reference.