Nodes — renting a workstation

Nodes is where you rent a render workstation. Open it with 🖥️ Nodes in the main menu.

In a nutshell

You pick a configuration (GPU, count, RAM) and your project, pay the first 30 minutes, the bot builds a personal Windows workstation in 5–10 minutes, and you connect to it right from Telegram: a fullscreen stream with mouse, keyboard and audio. After the prepaid 30 minutes billing is per minute, from your balance.

Step by step

Nodes → the Rent a Workstation card lists the GPU tiers with their starting prices.
GPU: RTX3090, RTX4090 or RTX5090.
Count: ×2, ×3, ×4 depending on the model. The card shows the hourly price of each, the buttons carry an availability dot.
RAM: Standard (64GB), Pro (128GB), Ultra (256GB), where the configuration offers them. Pro and Ultra add $1–2 per hour, the exact price is on the card.
Pay with — if you're in a team and both balances cover the prepayment, pick Personal or your team. If one of them is short, its button offers Deposit instead.
Project: your projects from Dropbox with the software versions they need. Projects with the same versions are grouped; press Continue or pick one when versions differ. All projects are copied to the workstation either way. No project — Clean Windows. Licences are your own, you sign in to Maxon, OTOY or SideFX on the workstation.
Ready to start shows the configuration, the exact Software, the hourly price and the Prepaid now amount (30 minutes). Tap Pay $X & start.
Pay and start building? — a confirmation card with the amount charged now and your balance after. The prepayment isn't refunded once the build starts and the build can't be cancelled. Tap Pay & start again, or Back.

Projects and software versions

Bake your project (assets, caches and simulations inside) and upload the folder or a ZIP to your Dropbox folder. RAR and 7z aren't supported.
The bot reads the versions from the project file: Cinema 4D R21–2026 with the exact Octane version, or the latest Redshift for that Cinema 4D, the latest Blender and Houdini.
The workstation launches the software in the exact versions, you open the project yourself. A workstation runs one version: double-click opens any project in the version you picked. For a project from another version, pick it in the bot.
If we don't have your Octane version, Cinema 4D opens without Octane: sign in to OTOY and install yours.
A scene from a newer Cinema 4D: install that version from Maxon App on the workstation.
Redshift scenes from Cinema 4D R21–S24 run on RTX3090 and RTX4090 only.
Other render engines (Arnold, V-Ray, Corona) aren't included.

Prices per hour

RTX3090 — ×2 $6, ×3 $8, ×4 $10

RTX4090 — ×2 $10, ×3 $15, ×4 $20

RTX5090 — ×2 $15, ×4 $30

Pro and Ultra RAM add $1–2/hr. Founding members see the discounted price with the full one crossed out. The prepayment is half the hourly price and covers the first 30 minutes.

Availability and the waitlist

Green dot — available now.
Red dot — busy. Tap it, the bot offers Notify me when available. When the configuration frees up you get a push with Launch now, which takes you straight to the rental flow. The bell on the button means you're subscribed; tap it again to unsubscribe.
Yellow dot — built to order (large rigs). The flow is the same, but the node is assembled by hand in about an hour; the card says Node on request and the bot pings you when it's ready.

Provisioning

After payment a Provisioning your workstation card appears with your configuration, the current step in a frame and a running indicator, and Step N of 5, usually 5–10 min. Steps: preparing the render environment, allocating GPUs, configuring the node, installing software, final checks. The card updates by itself, you can leave the chat.

Provisioning can't be cancelled: the workstation is really being built for you. Billing hasn't started yet: the prepaid 30 minutes begin only when the workstation is ready. If it never becomes ready, the prepayment comes back automatically.

Node ready

When the workstation is up you get a Node ready card: configuration, Project synced (or syncing), Free wait 5 min, and the Start session button. Press Start within 5 minutes and the prepaid 30 minutes begin. If you don't, the card turns into Paid time running, 30 min left: the prepaid time counts down on its own, and after it the workstation is torn down. Cancel on this card shuts the workstation down without a refund of the prepayment.

Active session

Once started, a pinned Active session card appears:

Configuration and hourly price, the exact software versions in a frame below
Files sync — up to date or syncing
Render — whether a render is running on the workstation
Balance
Elapsed, Prepaid left (then Accrued after the prepaid window), Left at the current rate
Quick tips and What the assistant can do

Buttons: Open Remote Control (the stream inside Telegram), Open in Browser (the same stream in a browser tab), Stop session. The card refreshes every minute.

Stopping

Stop session turns the card into Stop this session? with the elapsed time and the prepaid time left (not refunded). Keep session returns the card, Stop session ends it: the workstation is destroyed, and a Session ended card shows the duration, the total cost and the reason. Renders saved to your Dropbox folder stay with you.

Several sessions

Up to 3 sessions in parallel, each with its own card. The number is in the title: Active session #1, #2, #3.

When the balance runs out

When about 15 minutes of balance are left at the current rate, the bot sends a low-balance warning once. If the balance can't cover the next minute, the session is paused, not ended: the workstation is frozen with its disk kept, the GPUs are released, so billing stops. Top up in Wallet and tap Continue on the Session paused card to come back to the same workstation with your files and installed software. If no workstation of your configuration is free at that moment, you're put in line and pinged when one frees. Save your scene before the balance runs out: only work that was never saved to disk can be lost.