Paused sandboxes, kept disks and snapshots are kept while you have credit
A paused sandbox, a stopped one's disk and a snapshot stay for as long as the account holds credit, with no 30-day or 7-day end, unless you set days with :retention or a snapshot's retentionDays. When credit runs out they are kept seven more days, with a notice first, and a top-up keeps them again. A sandbox paused on the trial is kept the same way once the account holds credit, and its storage is billed from the end of its seven free days. See paused storage.
The trial's hours, then credit, with nothing to choose
A sandbox runs on the free trial's hours first and on prepaid credit after, automatically: at create, when a paused sandbox wakes, and while one runs, so a running trial sandbox carries on on credit instead of pausing when the hours run out. A request's funding is accepted and ignored, and code that sets it keeps working. Once an account holds credit, its sandboxes have paid limits and still spend the trial's hours first, and a trial sandbox that turns paid while it runs gets a paid sandbox's disk share at once and, if the trial had slowed it, its full cores back. See included usage.
Public previews follow a kept purchase
A preview can be public once the account has bought credit; credit given alone does not open one. While an account is blocked, or every purchase it made is refunded in full, its public previews need the token like private ones, and they open to anyone again once it pays. See security.
A stop keeps the disk; only a delete removes it
A stopped sandbox keeps its files for $0.08 per decimal GB per 30-day month, reads diskKept: true and starts again from them with :restart, its memory gone; deleting it removes them. onLeaseEnd: "delete" deletes a sandbox and its files when its time limit ends. A stop from a client released before today, or from raw HTTP without x-runtime-client: http/2026-10-04, keeps the disk free for three days, with one notice, and then deletes it. The console shows Restart and Delete on a stopped sandbox. See paused storage.
Ending a sandbox never waits for room
A delete, stop or pause never fails for lack of room, even on a full server.