On the free plan you can hand work to the cloud worker once, to see what a cloud run does before choosing Pro or Team. The start screen on the web, the Mac and the iPhone says so: Free Trial Run · 1 of 1 · Small · $1 cap · 30 min.
Its limits
- One run, ever, per account. It is counted when the run's key is issued. A start that is refused, or that you approve but that never reaches the worker, does not use it.
- A small machine. The medium one is not offered, and the worker refuses it.
- A $1 cap. The run's dollar ceiling cannot be set higher; model calls and machine time both count against it.
- 30 minutes, from the moment you start it. Approving a command it waits for keeps it going inside those 30 minutes, never past them.
- One at a time, like everything else about it.
The server holds the run to all of this whatever a device sends; the start screens only show it.
Paid from your credit
A trial run is charged like any cloud run: the model and the machine, from your account's credit, at the same prices. It is not free money, so starting it needs at least $1 of credit. With less, the start screen says so and points to Plan & Billing. Because a run can never spend more than its cap, it never takes your balance below zero.
Afterwards
Once the trial run has been used, or while it is running, the start screen says so and offers Open Plan & Billing: more cloud runs come with Pro or Team, which also allow larger machines, longer runs and higher ceilings.
Deleting your account and signing up again with the same address does not give you another trial run. What is kept to know that is a one-way digest, not your address.
The trial does not switch cloud runs on: Durable Cloud Goals must still be on in Settings, and a team can still switch cloud runs off.