How long can a Novita Sandbox run? | Novita AI

A sandbox runs for 5 minutes unless you set a timeout when you create it. The timeout is capped by your account tier — 1 hour on Free, 3 on Paid, 4 on Enterprise — and long-running mode lifts that cap. You can extend a running sandbox’s timeout at any time, or pause it to keep its state without a running clock.

Details

Setting	Value
Default `timeout` when not set	5 minutes
Maximum `timeout` without long-running mode	Your tier’s maximum session duration: Free 1 hour · Paid 3 hours · Enterprise 4 hours by default, adjustable. Larger values are capped.
With long-running mode (`metadata={"long_running": "true"}`)	`timeout` can exceed your tier’s cap
What happens at timeout	Killed by default, or paused if `lifecycle.on_timeout` is `pause`
Idle timeout	Optional; fires when no client is connected, and still applies in long-running mode

Your tier’s cap is returned by the quota API as limit.max_length_hours (Python) / limit.maxLengthHours (JavaScript). A long-running sandbox keeps running until its timeout, an idle timeout, or kill(), and bills per second the whole time — always set an explicit timeout, and an idle timeout for services that can sleep.

How to

from novita_sandbox import Novita

novita = Novita()

# Pause instead of kill when the timeout fires, and resume on the next request.
sandbox = novita.sandbox.create(
    timeout=60 * 60,
    lifecycle={"on_timeout": "pause", "auto_resume": True},
)
sandbox.set_timeout(60 * 60)  # reset the clock to 1 hour while work is in progress

# Long-lived service: lift the tier cap.
service = novita.sandbox.create(metadata={"long_running": "true"}, timeout=3 * 60 * 60)

import { Novita } from 'novita-sandbox'

const novita = new Novita()

// Pause instead of kill when the timeout fires, and resume on the next request.
const sandbox = await novita.sandbox.create({
  timeoutMs: 60 * 60 * 1000,
  lifecycle: { onTimeout: 'pause', autoResume: true },
})
await sandbox.setTimeout(60 * 60 * 1000) // reset the clock to 1 hour while work is in progress

// Long-lived service: lift the tier cap.
const service = await novita.sandbox.create({ metadata: { long_running: 'true' }, timeoutMs: 3 * 60 * 60 * 1000 })

Learn more: Timeout handling · Long-running sandboxes · Idle timeout

Last modified on November 11, 2026

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