Create a virtual machine

#Before you start

You need two things in place:

• A way to pay. Creating a machine takes an upfront payment from your credit, or from your saved card if the credit does not cover it. See how billing works.
• An SSH key. Password login is off on every image and cannot be turned on, so a key is the only way in over SSH. You can make one on the create form itself. See SSH keys.

Go to Virtual machines and press Create VM. The form is six sections; open one at a time, and each shows a tick once it is filled in. The summary beside it reads your choices back with the price.

#1. Name and region

VM name must be at least three characters. Generate suggests one, which you can edit.

Then choose the kind of machine:

• Standard VPS: its own public IPv4 address, filtered by a security group. The right choice for a single server facing the internet.
• VM in a VPC: a private address in a subnet you choose, filtered by the subnet's network ACL. The right choice for machines that talk to each other privately.

A standard VPS and a VM in a VPC cannot reach each other privately, even in the same region, and a machine cannot change kind later. Core concepts compares the two.

If a kind is greyed out, it says why. Usually the zone has no public addresses left, or your account is still being set up there and will be ready in a minute.

#2. Image

Pick the operating system. Each distribution is one card; choosing it picks its newest version, and a row underneath lets you pick an older one. Only images that run in the zone you chose are listed.

For Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 in zone af-abj-1, an Encrypt disk at rest switch under the version picker builds the VM from the encrypted image instead: its disk, snapshots and backups are encrypted on our storage, with a key of its own. It is off by default, and shown only where it is available and enabled for your organization. See encrypted VMs.

#3. Size

Sizes are listed cheapest first, each with its vCPUs, memory and disk, and two monthly figures:

• Running: an estimate for running it all month (730 hours). You are billed by the hour, so it is not a cap: a 31-day month costs a little more.
• Stopped: what it costs if it is stopped all month. A stopped machine still holds its disk, so it pays for storage and is never free.

Prices exclude VAT, which is added to your end-of-period invoice.

The disk comes with the size and can only grow. Pick the size you need now.

#4. Network

For a standard VPS, choose a security group, or leave it empty and default networking applies. Create opens a short form without leaving the page, with three starting points:

If the group you pick lets the whole internet reach a login port, the form warns you before you create anything. You can change the group later, but only while the machine is stopped. See security groups.

For a VM in a VPC, choose the VPC, then one of its subnets. The machine stays in that subnet for its whole life, the subnet's network ACL applies to it, and it has no public address until you give it one. If you have no VPC yet, the form offers to make one (see VPCs and subnets).

#5. SSH key

Choose the key to put on the machine, or Create key to generate one here. The new key's private half downloads as a .pem file, and the key is selected for you. Keep that file: we do not store it.

#6. Tags

Optional key and value labels, such as env: production or role: web. Press Add tag, fill in both, and press Enter. Using a key twice replaces the first value. Tags become filters on the virtual machine list.

#Create it

When every required section is ticked, Create VM in the summary turns on. The summary shows:

• Upfront payment (40%): 40% of the monthly estimate, paid as soon as you press Create VM, from your credit if it covers the whole amount, otherwise from your saved card. It is deducted from your next bill, not added on top.
• If it runs all month: an estimate for 730 hours of running. You pay for the hours it actually runs.
• If it’s stopped all month: disk storage only.

All three exclude VAT; the upfront payment itself carries none. Each ? beside a figure explains it. See how billing works.

The machine's page opens straight away and follows the build: the payment, then the build itself, then Ready. It usually takes about a minute. You can leave the page; the build carries on.

#Find your machines

Virtual machines lists every machine in the organization with its status, size and image, above a row of totals. From the list you can:

• Search by name.
• Filter by status, size, image, or a tag's environment and role.
• Use a row's ⋯ menu to power a machine on or off, take a snapshot, or destroy it.
• Tick several rows to power them off or destroy them together.

Click a row to open the machine's own page, where everything else happens. See managing a machine.

#What the statuses mean