# Compute sizes and limits


> [!NOTE]
> The Docker Sandboxes API and SDK are experimental. Features, interfaces,
> and behavior may change.

Choose a compute size for each sandbox and keep your application's resource
usage within your account's quotas. Request rate limits also constrain how
quickly your application can send API requests.

## Compute sizes

Cloud Sandboxes supports these CPU and memory pairs:

| SDK size name | CPUs | Memory | Memory in MiB |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| `micro` | 1 | 2 GiB | 2048 |
| `small` | 2 | 4 GiB | 4096 |
| `medium` | 4 | 8 GiB | 8192 |
| `large` | 8 | 16 GiB | 16384 |
| `xl` | 16 | 32 GiB | 32768 |

The kit launch helpers default to `small` when you omit `resources`. To select
another size, pass its name:

```typescript
const sandbox = await client.kits.launchAndWait('shell', {
  resources: 'medium',
});
```

For a registry image, specify a size in `client.create()`, such as
`resources: 'small'`. You can also pass an explicit CPU and memory pair:
`resources: { cpus: 2, memoryMib: 4096 }`.

Named sizes are an SDK convenience. In direct REST requests, supply both
`resources.cpus` and `resources.memoryMib`. CPU and memory aren't independent
settings: for example, 1 CPU with 1024 MiB is not a supported pair.

When creating from an existing image resource with `image`, omit resource
settings because the image supplies them.

Your account access and available capacity determine whether a request can
be accepted. See [Billing](/agentic-platform/signup/#billing) for
pricing and usage information.

## Account quotas

The default quotas apply across an account:

| Resource | Default limit |
| --- | ---: |
| Concurrent sandboxes | 10 |
| Stored sandboxes | 50 |
| Volumes | 100 |
| Secrets | 100 |
| Images being prepared at the same time | 3 |

Your account can have different quotas. Confirm your account's limits with
Docker before planning a workload that depends on a particular allowance.

Stopping a sandbox releases its concurrency slot unless the sandbox is
configured as always-on. Restarting a stopped sandbox requires a concurrency
slot. A stopped sandbox still counts toward the stored sandbox quota.
Delete sandboxes you no longer need to reduce stored usage.

Handle quota errors even if you checked usage before creating a resource.
Other applications can consume the remaining allowance between requests.
Reduce concurrency or remove unused resources before retrying.

## Request rate limits

Rate limits control how quickly you can send requests and can vary by
operation. When a request reaches a rate limit, wait before retrying and
honor any delay specified by the server. Limit concurrent requests and set
bounds on retry attempts and elapsed time.

Check the error details to distinguish a rate limit from a resource quota.
Waiting can resolve a rate limit, but exceeding a quota requires reducing
resource usage. See [Errors and retries](/ai/sandboxes-api/limits/errors/) for how to retry without
duplicating work.