# Akamai Cloud (Linode)

> Ordinary Linux VMs still called Linodes, from $5 a month, billed hourly up to a monthly cap, with a powered-off server still billed in full and one-click Hermes and OpenClaw apps.

Website: https://www.akamai.com/cloud/pricing/cpu  
Guide page: https://botperch.com/providers/linode/  
Checked: 2026-10-30

**Short answer:** One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $24.00 a month here, the 13th cheapest of the 22 providers that run it as described. The AI model adds about $1.88 a month on top (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017), 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $0.46 at the cheapest host). Fits well: An always-on agent on a normal Linux box: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 80 GB for $24 a month, or 1 vCPU / 1 GB for $5.

Akamai Cloud sells Linux virtual machines it still calls Linodes: pick a region, a distribution or one-click app, and a fixed size, and the machine is yours to administer over SSH. It is the former Linode cloud, and the plan names, the API host (api.linode.com), the CLI and the console (cloud.linode.com) all still carry the Linode name.
Five CPU families matter to a reader: Shared CPU (1 GB to 192 GB, the cheap general-purpose plans), G6 and G7 Dedicated (reserved cores, 4 GB to 512 GB), G8 Dedicated (newer 1:2 and 1:4 shapes, hourly only) and High Memory (24 GB to 300 GB with few cores). GPU, Accelerated and Kubernetes plans are separate products and are not priced here.
On top of the machine sit the usual cloud extras, most of them free: DNS, Cloud Firewalls, VPC and VLAN networking, placement groups, metrics and StackScripts. Backups, Block Storage, Object Storage and extra IPv4 addresses are paid add-ons.

**Who it is for:** People who want a normal Linux server per agent at a flat monthly price, in a region near them, and who are happy to patch the operating system and the agent themselves. At $24 a month for 2 vCPU / 4 GiB it sits within a dollar of the other big VPS names, and it pairs one-click Hermes and OpenClaw apps with 33 regions.

**Isolation:** A VPS (virtual private server), not a sandbox built for agents. A full KVM virtual machine per Linode with its own kernel, root, disk and IP addresses. Docker runs inside, and the guest kernel is the machine's own. Shared plans share physical cores and should stay under 80% sustained CPU; G6, G7, G8 and High Memory reserve cores. Nested virtualisation is not documented anywhere in the current docs, and there is no GPU on the CPU plans.

**Sizes and regions:** Fixed shapes only, with no custom CPU or RAM split. Shared CPU: 1-32 vCPU, 1-192 GiB, 25-3,840 GiB of SSD. G6 and G7 Dedicated: 2-56 vCPU, 4-256 GiB orderable, with a 512 GiB row advertised but absent from the live type list. G8 Dedicated: 2-256 vCPU, 4-512 GiB, in 1:2 and 1:4 shapes. High Memory: 2-16 vCPU, 24-300 GiB. Extra disk comes from Block Storage volumes (10 GB-16 TB each), not from the plan. 33 core compute regions at this check, seven of them in Europe and six in the EU.

## How it charges

- model: Pay-as-you-go per Linode, with no plan fee and no commitment. Shared, G6, G7 and High Memory plans have an hourly rate and a monthly cap; G8 plans have an hourly rate only.
- meter: Hourly, always rounded up to the nearest hour, up to the monthly cap. Linode 4 GB is $0.036/h and $24 a month, so the cap binds at 666.7 hours.
- stopped: Nothing changes when you power off: data and RAM stay reserved and the meter runs at the full hourly rate until the Linode is deleted. There is no pause and no cheaper stopped state.
- planFee: None. The monthly figure is a cap on hourly usage, not a subscription: a Linode deleted after 90 hours bills 90 hours.
- minimum: $5 a month for the smallest plan (Nanode 1 GB). A payment method is required at signup; new customers get a $100 credit that expires with the trial.

Fixed-size VMs billed by the hour, rounded up, up to a monthly price cap; a powered-off Linode keeps billing in full, and G8 plans have an hourly price with no cap.
- Shared CPU and G6/G7 plans have an hourly rate and a monthly cap. The cap binds at about 667 hours (for example $48 / $0.072 = 666.7 h), so an always-on machine costs the advertised monthly price.
- G8 Dedicated plans have an hourly rate only. Since 1 July 2026 they are billed for actual hours with no monthly cap, so 730 hours on the G8 8x4 is $102.20, not a flat monthly figure.
- Usage is rounded up to the nearest hour per service, so a ten-minute Linode bills one hour. The calculator applies that to every task; see abc.md for the alternative reading.
- A powered-off Linode is billed in full until it is deleted: data and RAM are still reserved. billedWhileStopped applies the running rate to the 640 stopped hours in workload C.
- Disk comes with the plan. A request larger than the plan's disk is priced as Block Storage at $0.10 per GiB a month (10 GB to 16 TB per volume), not as a bigger boot disk.
- The Backups service is a paid add-on: $2 a month on the Nanode, $5 a month ($0.008/h) on Linode 4 GB, $10 on Linode 8 GB, up to $240 on the largest plans, with higher rates in Jakarta and São Paulo. It is not in the calculator.
- Snapshots and custom images are not in the calculator. An image is stored as Object Storage and stays until deleted; the site's images pricing page was not read for this card.
- Outbound transfer overage is $0.005 per GB on the pricing page. Egress is shown on the outbound-network feature, not priced here.
- Not in the card: extra IPv4 addresses (billed hourly with no cap since 1 July 2026, price by region), NodeBalancers, Object Storage, Longview Pro, and GPU/Accelerated plans.

## Monthly cost for each preset workload

- A personal agent that stays on (Hermes, OpenClaw): $24.00
- A coding agent for one developer: $48.00
- A code interpreter inside your product: $720.00
- A browser agent for a small team: $1,080.00
- Self-hosted n8n for a small team: $24.00
- A Discord or Slack bot for one server: $12.00
- Claude Code for a team of five: $240.00
- A scraper that runs four times a day: $2.16
- Your own remote MCP server: $5.00
- A: 1,000 short tasks: $36.00
- B: one always-on box: $48.00
- C: three hours a day: $24.00

## Fits well

- An always-on agent on a normal Linux box: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 80 GB for $24 a month, or 1 vCPU / 1 GB for $5.
- A reader who wants a one-click Hermes Agent or OpenClaw deployment and then root on the same machine.
- Teams that need a region near their users: 33 core regions, seven of them in Europe (six in the EU), at one flat price.
- Anything that needs a real kernel, Docker, arbitrary TCP ports, a static IPv4 or extra Block Storage.

## Fits badly

- Anything that must pause and resume mid-process: powering off loses memory and keeps billing.
- Many short runs: each Linode rounds up to a whole hour, so 1,000 ten-minute tasks cost 1,000 hours.
- A reader who wants the provider to run the agent for them: a Linode has no prompt endpoint.
- A copy of a running machine: cloning needs the source powered off first.

## Features

- **Isolation** (yes): Full VM; root, Docker. A KVM guest with its own kernel, disk and IPs, on shared or dedicated vCPU depending on the plan. Nested virtualisation has no current documentation, and the CPU plans have no GPU. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- **Sizes and regions** (yes): 256 vCPU / 512 GiB; 33 regions. Fixed shapes from 1 vCPU / 1 GiB / 25 GB to 256 vCPU / 512 GiB / 5,120 GB across shared, G6, G7, G8 and High Memory families. CPU and RAM cannot be sized separately, extra disk is a Block Storage volume, and a resize reboots the machine. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/how-to-choose-a-compute-instance-plan) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/how-to-choose-a-compute-instance-plan)
- **Lifecycle** (partly): Stop keeps disk; no pause. There is no pause, hibernate or sleep: a stop is a power-off that keeps the disk and the IP addresses. The charge continues at the full hourly rate, so a stopped machine is never cheaper than a running one. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- **Snapshots and forks** (partly): Disk images; 4 backups. Images capture or upload whole disks and stay until deleted; Backups keeps daily, weekly, biweekly and one manual copy. A clone copies disks and profiles but needs a power-off first, and there is no memory snapshot. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- **Storage** (yes): Plan disk + 16 TB volumes. SSD plan disk is included in the price. Block Storage volumes cost $0.10 per GiB a month from 10 GB to 16 TB, attach to one Linode at a time, and are not covered by the Backups service. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage)
- **Idle and waking** (yes): No documented idle timer. Inferred, not stated: Akamai publishes no idle timer, session limit or lifetime cap, and the API's status field has no idle or paused value (running, offline, booting, busy, rebooting, shutting_down, provisioning, deleting, migrating, rebuilding, cloning, restoring, stopped, billing_suspension). A status list does not by itself rule out an automatic stop; the documented provider-initiated stops are a past-due balance and maintenance announced seven days ahead. The machine bills the whole time. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/get-linode-instance) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works#will-i-be-billed-for-powered-off-or-unused-services)
- **Reaching it** (yes): Public IPv4, SSH, Lish. A static public IPv4 and IPv6 per Linode, Cloud Firewall rules in both directions, standard SSH and the Lish console in Cloud Manager. Outbound ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked on some new accounts. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance-networking)
- **Custom domains** (partly): Free DNS; HTTPS is yours. DNS Manager is free but needs at least one active Linode on the account. The platform issues no certificate for a port: the OpenClaw Quick Deploy App adds Let's Encrypt, everything else is your own proxy. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/dns-manager) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/dns-manager)
- **Outbound network** (yes): $0.005/GiB; 1-20 TB included. Outbound transfer is pooled per account and prorated for part-months; inbound and intra-datacentre traffic is free. G8 and GPU plans include no transfer. Cloud Firewall outbound rules can restrict destinations, or drop everything. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/network-transfer-usage-and-costs)
- **Keys and secrets** (no): Scoped tokens; no store. API tokens can be scoped per service and limited to read-only or read-write, which protects the account rather than the agent's keys. There is no secret store and no request-side injection. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-personal-access-tokens) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-personal-access-tokens)
- **Ways to drive it** (yes): Console, CLI, API, 3 SDKs. Cloud Manager, linode-cli, a documented REST API, official Python and JavaScript clients, Terraform and Pulumi providers, StackScripts and cloud-init. There is no PTY or file endpoint. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/api)
- **Built-in agents** (partly): 1-click Hermes + OpenClaw. Two genuine one-click agent apps in the Quick Deploy catalogue, but no coding agent in the default images and no prompt endpoint. Claude Code or Codex you install yourself. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/openclaw) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/openclaw)
- **Teams and accounts** (partly): Roles, SAML SSO; no cap. RBAC roles, SAML 2.0 single sign-on, scoped tokens and streamed audit logs. There is no hard spend cap, and the alerting covers resource thresholds rather than money. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm)
- **Billing models** (partly): $0.036/h, cap at 667 h. An hourly rate with a monthly cap on shared and G6/G7 plans; G8 plans are hourly only with no cap since 1 July 2026. Usage rounds up to the nearest hour, and a powered-off machine bills in full until it is deleted. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works) [docs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- **Trials and free tiers** (partly): $100 credit, 60 days. A one-off promotional credit for new customers only, excluding GPU plans; unused credit expires and there is no ongoing free allowance. A valid payment method is required to open the account. [source](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100) [docs](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100)
- **The company** (yes): Akamai; 99.99% SLA; SOC 2. Linode is the contracting party in the SLA and MSA while marketing says Akamai Cloud. 99.99% monthly uptime for plans in general availability and 99% for limited-availability plans. [source](https://www.akamai.com/legal/sla-compute) [docs](https://www.akamai.com/company)

## Capabilities

- Its own virtual machine: yes (Full VM, own kernel) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Root access: yes (Root by password or SSH key) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/faqs-for-compute-instances)
- Docker inside: yes (Docker Quick Deploy app) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/docker)
- Nested virtualisation: not-published [source](https://www.linode.com/community/questions/17491/how-do-i-enable-nested-virtualization-for-my-linode)
- Your own image: yes (Upload or capture an image) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- Any size you like: no (Fixed plans only) [source](https://www.akamai.com/cloud/pricing/cpu)
- Large machines: yes (256 vCPU / 512 GiB) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/how-to-choose-a-compute-instance-plan)
- Resize while running: partly (Warm resize reboots). A warm resize keeps the Linode up while it migrates but reboots it at the end, so running processes do not survive the change. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/resize-a-compute-instance)
- GPUs: yes (RTX 4000 Ada to RTX PRO 6000) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/gpu-compute-instances)
- Choose the region: yes (33 core regions) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Runs in the EU: yes (6 EU countries) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/how-to-choose-a-data-center)
- Pause keeps memory: no (No pause; power off only) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- Pre-started pools: no (No pre-started pool) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Starts in under a second: no (Full boot, no resume) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Snapshots of files: yes (Images, kept until deleted) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- Snapshots with memory: no (Disk images only) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- Copy a running machine: no (Clone needs power-off) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/clone-a-compute-instance)
- Pick an older snapshot: yes (Daily, weekly, biweekly + manual) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/backup-service)
- Reusable templates: yes (Image to new Linode) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- Automatic backups: yes (4 backups, 14-day rotation) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/backup-service)
- Files survive a stop: yes (Disk kept while off) [source](https://www.akamai.com/cloud/pricing/cpu)
- Separate volumes: yes ($0.10/GiB-mo; 10 GB-16 TB) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage)
- One volume, several machines: no (One Linode at a time) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage)
- Mount outside storage: partly (S3-compatible; no mount). Object Storage speaks S3, but there is no native mount: you add s3fs or rclone yourself, and a bucket is not a filesystem the agent can rely on. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/object-storage)
- Large disk: yes (16 TB per volume) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage)
- Can stay on indefinitely: yes (No session or lifetime cap) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/get-linode-instance)
- Choose the idle timeout: yes (Nothing to set; it never idles) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/get-linode-instance)
- Wakes on a request: no (Nothing sleeps) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/linode-api/reference/get-linode-instance)
- Scheduled runs: no (Cron inside the VM only) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Public link to a port: yes (Public IPv4, any port) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Private link: partly (Firewall by address). Access is limited by source IP in a Cloud Firewall, not by a token or login link, so anyone on an allowed network reaches the port. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/cloud-firewall)
- Real SSH: yes (Standard SSH) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/faqs-for-compute-instances)
- Terminal in the browser: yes (Lish in the browser) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-system-console-using-lish)
- Tunnel to your computer: yes (ssh -L over real SSH) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/faqs-for-compute-instances)
- Non-web ports: yes (Any port except 25/465/587) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/faqs-for-compute-instances)
- Your own domain: yes (Free DNS Manager) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/dns-manager)
- Automatic HTTPS: partly (Only some one-click apps). The platform issues no certificate for a port: the OpenClaw app configures Let's Encrypt, and everything else needs Certbot or Caddy installed on the server. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/openclaw)
- Outbound data included: yes (1-20 TB by plan) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Allow only some sites: yes (Outbound firewall rules) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-firewall-rules)
- Turn the internet off: yes (Outbound policy Drop) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-firewall-rules)
- Fixed outgoing IP: yes (Static IPv4 for its life) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Stored secrets: no (No secret store) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/add-user-data-when-deploying-a-compute-instance)
- Secrets the agent cannot read: no (No injection proxy) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/add-user-data-when-deploying-a-compute-instance)
- Limited API keys: yes (Per-service token scopes) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-personal-access-tokens)
- Create from the website: yes (Cloud Manager) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/create-a-compute-instance)
- Command-line tool: yes (linode-cli) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- Python SDK: yes (linode_api4) [source](https://github.com/linode/linode_api4-python)
- TypeScript SDK: yes (@linode/api-v4) [source](https://github.com/linode/manager/tree/develop/packages/api-v4)
- Documented HTTP API: yes (REST API v4) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- MCP server: partly (Official, read-only). The official MCP server is read-only by design, so an assistant can inspect machines, prices and limits but cannot create, start or drive one. [source](https://github.com/akamai-developers/akamai-cloud-mcp)
- Interactive terminal over the API: no (No PTY endpoint) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-system-console-using-lish)
- Files over the API: no (No file endpoint) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-disks-on-a-compute-instance)
- Coding agents preinstalled: partly (Hermes/OpenClaw apps only). The default images ship no coding agent; Hermes and OpenClaw come as one-click apps, and Claude Code or Codex you install and configure yourself. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/hermes)
- Send it a prompt: no (No prompt endpoint) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- One-click Hermes: yes (Hermes Quick Deploy app) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/hermes)
- One-click OpenClaw: yes (OpenClaw Quick Deploy app) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/openclaw)
- Browser built in: no (Nothing preinstalled) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-desktop-environment-using-glish)
- Desktop for computer use: partly (Glish, after you install one). Glish shows a desktop in the browser, but you install the desktop environment and everything on it yourself; nothing is ready for a computer-use agent. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-desktop-environment-using-glish)
- Runs other platforms' agents: not-published [source](https://docs.openclaw.ai/llms.txt)
- Team workspace: yes (Users share one account) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm)
- Roles and permissions: yes (RBAC roles per service) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm)
- Single sign-on: yes (SAML 2.0) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/single-sign-on-cm)
- Hard spending cap: no (No hard cap) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/billing-faqs)
- Usage alerts: partly (Resource alerts, not money). Alerts cover CPU, disk and transfer thresholds, not spending: there is no billing alert that warns when the month's cost passes an amount you set. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/configure-email-alerts-for-resource-usage-on-compute-instances)
- Audit log: yes (Control-plane, streamed) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/linodes-audit-logs)
- Billed per second: no (Hourly, rounded up) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- CPU billed only while working: no (Billed while it exists) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- Paused costs only storage: no (Off bills in full) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- No monthly fee: yes (No plan fee) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- Flat monthly price: yes ($24 for 2 vCPU / 4 GiB) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- Ongoing free tier: no (No ongoing free tier) [source](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100)
- Free starting credit: yes ($100 for 60 days) [source](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100)
- Try without a card: no (Card required) [source](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100)
- Public status page: yes (status.linode.com) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/subscribe-to-status-updates)
- Uptime promise (SLA): yes (99.99% monthly) [source](https://www.akamai.com/legal/sla-compute)
- SOC 2 report: yes (SOC 2 Type 2 on request) [source](https://www.akamai.com/site/en/documents/corporate/akamai-data-protection-addendum.pdf)
- Data processing agreement: yes (Published DPA) [source](https://www.akamai.com/site/en/documents/corporate/akamai-data-protection-addendum.pdf)
- Open source or self-hostable: no (Hosted service only) [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)

## Usability

- Dashboard: Yes. Cloud Manager creates Linodes, volumes, firewalls, domains, images, backups and NodeBalancers, with graphs, alerts, a browser console, a graphical console and a resize flow.
- Without code: Partly. Creating the machine and deploying a Quick Deploy App such as Hermes or OpenClaw is all clicking, but adding model keys, pairing WhatsApp or Telegram and running the agent are terminal work.
- Signup: Email, Google or GitHub, plus a payment method before any service. New customers get a $100 credit; it expires at the end of the trial and GPU plans are excluded from it.
- Docs: A large docs site with an llms.txt index, an OpenAPI reference, an official CLI, official Python and JavaScript clients, Terraform and Pulumi providers, a read-only MCP server and a community Q&A.
- Trips people up: Powering a Linode off does not stop the bill; only deleting it does.
- Trips people up: Usage rounds up to the whole hour, which is brutal for short tasks.
- Trips people up: G8 plans have no monthly cap: 730 hours bills 730 × the hourly rate.
- Trips people up: A resize reboots the machine, and shrinking the disk is a separate manual step.
- Trips people up: Outbound ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked on some new accounts.
- Trips people up: The $100 credit expires and needs a card at signup.
- Trips people up: Backups only work on unencrypted ext3/ext4 disks and skip attached volumes.
- Trips people up: Shared plans are meant to stay under 80% sustained CPU.
- Trips people up: Planned maintenance can power a Linode off; Akamai announces it seven days ahead.

## Company

- Legal entity: Linode is the contracting party named in the compute SLA and MSA; the same service is marketed as Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode). [source](https://www.akamai.com/legal/sla-compute)
- Brand: The cloud is sold as Akamai Cloud; Linode is the former name and the name still used for plans, the API, the CLI and the console. [source](https://www.akamai.com/legal/msa)
- Founded and listed: Akamai Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1998, is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is listed on NASDAQ as AKAM. [source](https://www.akamai.com/company)
- Uptime promise: 99.99% monthly uptime for compute plans in general availability, 99% for plans in limited availability, claimed as a pro-rata service credit. [source](https://www.akamai.com/legal/sla-compute)
- Certification: A SOC 2 Type 2 report is available to customers on request; the DPA names it as the audit document Akamai supplies. [source](https://www.akamai.com/site/en/documents/corporate/akamai-data-protection-addendum.pdf)
- Data protection: A Data Processing Agreement is published and incorporated into the terms; it covers sub-processors, audits and the customer's instructions. [source](https://www.akamai.com/site/en/documents/corporate/akamai-data-protection-addendum.pdf)
- Status page: status.linode.com carries per-data-centre status, incident history and email/SMS subscriptions. [source](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/subscribe-to-status-updates)

## Caveats

- **A powered-off Linode bills in full** (open): Akamai keeps the data and reserves RAM while the machine is off, so stopping changes nothing on the invoice. Workload C therefore costs the full $24 monthly price, not the $3.24 the running hours suggest.
- **Hourly rounding punishes short runs** (open): Usage is rounded up to the nearest hour per service, so a ten-minute task bills a whole hour. Workload A is 1,000 billable hours rather than 167.
- **G8 plans have no monthly cap** (open): Since 1 July 2026 G8 Dedicated Linodes, GPU Linodes and additional IPv4 addresses are billed for actual hours with no monthly price cap. The G8 8x4 at $0.14/h costs $102.20 for 730 hours, against $48 for the shared Linode 8 GB with the same 4 vCPU / 8 GiB.
- **Nested virtualisation is not documented** (open): No current Akamai page says whether a Linode can run KVM or another hypervisor inside it. The only first-party answers are 2018 and 2020 community posts saying it is not supported, which is too old to state as current fact; treat it as unpublished, not as supported.

## Sources

- [CPU plans and pricing](https://www.akamai.com/cloud/pricing/cpu)
- [Docs: Linodes overview](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/compute-instance)
- [Docs: choose a compute plan](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/how-to-choose-a-compute-instance-plan)
- [Docs: billing and monthly caps](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works)
- [Docs: network transfer usage and costs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/network-transfer-usage-and-costs)
- [Docs: resize a Linode](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/resize-a-compute-instance)
- [Docs: Images](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/images)
- [Docs: Backups](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/backup-service)
- [Docs: Block Storage](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/block-storage)
- [Docs: Cloud Firewalls](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/cloud-firewall)
- [Docs: firewall rules and default policies](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-firewall-rules)
- [Docs: DNS Manager](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/dns-manager)
- [Docs: Lish console](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-system-console-using-lish)
- [Docs: Glish desktop console](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/access-your-desktop-environment-using-glish)
- [Docs: personal access tokens](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/manage-personal-access-tokens)
- [Docs: Identity and Access](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/identity-and-access-cm)
- [Docs: single sign-on](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/single-sign-on-cm)
- [Docs: Linode audit logs](https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/linodes-audit-logs)
- [Quick Deploy App: Hermes](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/hermes)
- [Quick Deploy App: OpenClaw](https://techdocs.akamai.com/quick-deploy-apps/docs/openclaw)
- [Compute SLA](https://www.akamai.com/legal/sla-compute)
- [Data Processing Agreement](https://www.akamai.com/site/en/documents/corporate/akamai-data-protection-addendum.pdf)
- [Free credit terms](https://www.akamai.com/lp/free-credit-100)