# Cost and sleep

When a bot's computer is awake, asleep, and billing, how to see which computers are running, and how to stop them.

Canonical page: https://themachine.myapps.ai/docs/desktop/cloud-computer/cost-and-sleep

A bot's computer costs money **only while it's awake**. Asleep, it doesn't
run, and its files are kept.

## Awake and asleep

| | Awake | Asleep |
|---|---|---|
| **The bot can work** | Yes | It wakes up first |
| **Files** | Kept | Kept |
| **Running programs and websites** | Running | Stopped |
| **Costs money** | Yes | No running cost |

### What wakes a computer

- Sending a message in its thread.
- Opening the **Computer** or **Terminal** tab of the [computer
  panel](/docs/desktop/cloud-computer/overview).
- Clicking **Wake**.

Each run of a scheduled [automation](/docs/desktop/automations/overview)
starts in a new thread, with its own computer.

### What puts it to sleep

- **Automatically:** when its thread has been quiet for a while.
- **Yourself:** with **Stop**, in the computer panel or the running-computers
  list.

## See which computers are running

![The running computers list at the bottom of the sidebar, with a Stop button for each](/images/docs/desktop/running-computers.webp)

When any computers are awake, the bottom of the sidebar shows **N computers
running · billing**. Click it to see:

- which bot and thread each computer belongs to,
- its status,
- a **Stop** button for each.

With the sidebar collapsed to avatars, a small monitor badge shows instead.

## Stop a computer

- In the running-computers list, click **Stop** next to it, or
- open the thread's computer panel and click **Stop** (*"Stop this computer
  (stops billing)"*).

Stopping a computer doesn't delete anything. Websites and programs it was
running stop, so a [shared website link](/docs/desktop/chat/find-share-export)
won't show the site until the bot starts it again.

## Tips to spend less

- **You don't have to babysit computers.** They go to sleep on their own.
- **Stop computers when you're done for the day**, if you've had several
  running.
- **Start new threads for new tasks.** Each turn in a very long thread costs
  more, because the model re-reads everything.
- **Check where it's going** in **Settings → Usage**. See [Usage and
  billing](/docs/desktop/settings/usage-and-billing).