Setups: run agents 24/7 and stretch your tokens
Monthly costs cover hosting and electricity only. Your AI subscription or API usage comes on top.
| Setup | Type | Infra / month | Upfront | Difficulty | Local models | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner CX23 VPS + tmux/systemd + Claude Code/Codex CLI | cloud-vm | EUR 5.49 (+IPv4 extra), post 15-Jun-2026 price | $0 | 2/5 | no | verified 2026-10-16 |
| Hetzner CAX21 ARM 4vCPU/8GB multi-agent box | cloud-vm | EUR 10.49 | $0 | 2/5 | no | verified 2026-10-16 |
| DigitalOcean 2vCPU/4GB droplet | cloud-vm | $24 | $0 | 1/5 | no | verified 2026-10-16 |
| Fly Machine shared-cpu-1x 1GB (always-on) / Sprites for burst | paas | $6.7 | $0 | 3/5 | no | verified 2026-10-16 |
| Ephemeral sandboxes (E2B / Modal / Cloudflare Sandbox) for agent tool-exec | sandbox | usage: E2B $0.0504/vCPU-hr+$0.0162/GiB-hr (24/7 2vCPU/2GB ~ $97); Modal $0.1419/core-hr; E2B Pro $150/mo | $0 | 3/5 | no | partial - via Fly comparison page, confirm on e2b.dev/modal.com |
| Mac mini M4 16GB home agent server (+Ollama small models) | home-hw | ~EUR 1.5-4 power (4W idle Apple, 12-15W avg agent load, @0.30/kWh) | $799 | 2/5 | 7-13B usable; 24GB+ recommended | verified 2026-10-16 |
| N100 mini PC / old laptop with Ubuntu | home-hw | ~EUR 2-4 power | 0 (old laptop) - ~150-200 (N100) | 3/5 | no | unverified |
| T3 Code control surface (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Grok, OpenCode, Antigravity) on an always-on box | harness | 0 for T3 Code (MIT, free); host cost from any other setup | $0 | 2/5 | via OpenCode | verified 2026-10-16 |
Some links on setup pages may become affiliate links later. They'll always be labelled.