All Dash apps on Plotly Cloud have a compute mode and an app size. Together, they control your app’s responsiveness and resource allocation. New apps default to Automatically sleep mode at the Starter size, and you can change both at any time.
To configure the compute mode or app size, go to Dash apps, select your app, and open the Compute tab.
The compute mode determines whether your app sleeps when no one is using it.
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Choose Always awake when it’s important that the app responds instantly every time. For example, apps you share widely, or apps that are used only now and then but need to be ready right away. It’s also useful for apps that run scheduled jobs in the background, or that keep data loaded so pages load quickly. Choose Automatically sleep for apps that are used occasionally, where a brief start-up delay is fine.
The app size sets how much CPU and memory your app gets. Larger sizes handle more people using the app at once, bigger datasets, and heavier work, and they cost more credits per hour.
| App size | Resources | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 0.5 vCPU · 1 GB RAM | Simple dashboards and lightweight apps that need to stay responsive. |
| Standard 1x | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM | Production dashboards with moderate traffic and data processing. |
| Standard 2x | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM | Data-heavy apps with large datasets or concurrent users. |
| Performance M | 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM | Complex analytics, ML inference, or high-concurrency workloads. |
| Performance L | 8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM | Enterprise-scale apps with heavy computation or large in-memory datasets. |
The Starter size is free while it’s in Automatically sleep mode, including while it’s awake serving requests. In Always awake mode, Starter bills like the other sizes.
Need something larger? Contact our sales team for custom compute options tailored to your business needs.
Compute draws from the shared credit balance on your team. An app uses credits only while it’s running.
Because sleeping apps only bill while awake, an app in Automatically sleep mode typically costs far less than the displayed monthly estimate. An app in Always awake mode runs continuously, so it reaches the full monthly estimate.
The Compute tab shows the current credit rate and monthly estimate for each app size.
Plotly Cloud sends automated email warnings as your team’s credit balance runs low. If the team does run out of credits, your published apps stop running. Once you add more credits, restart your apps to bring them back online.
The Estimate your credit usage slider on the Compute tab lets you preview a monthly cost for a given number of awake hours. Drag it to model your expected usage and compare modes and sizes side by side. A sleeping app that’s awake only occasionally uses a small fraction of what the same app costs running Always awake around the clock, depending on how frequently users interact with the app.
Once you’ve chosen a mode and size, select Save to apply your choice.
Start with the smallest app size that comfortably handles your app, then move up if it feels slow or runs out of memory. If an app exceeds its memory, it enters a Failing state, which is a sign that a larger size may be needed. Keep infrequently used internal apps in Automatically sleep mode to minimize credit usage, and switch business-critical or embedded apps to Always awake so users never wait for a cold start. You can change the compute mode and app size at any time, so revisit your configuration as usage grows.