Compute

Provision and manage cloud servers for your Kubernetes clusters

Akua provisions and manages compute resources: the cloud servers that run your workloads. You don’t need a separate cloud provider account to get started. Create a cluster, and Akua handles server provisioning, Kubernetes setup, auto-scaling, and the full machine lifecycle.

How it works

Akua scales your compute automatically. When your workloads need more resources, Akua detects unschedulable pods and provisions a new server. When demand drops, idle servers are removed to save costs.

Pod needs resources → Akua provisions a server → Server joins the cluster → Pod scheduled

The entire flow takes about 2 minutes from pending pod to running workload.

All provisioning intelligence lives in the Akua API, not in the cluster. This means your cluster’s compute configuration stays minimal. Akua resolves the right credentials, region, and instance types automatically based on your workspace plan and cluster context. You don’t configure anything to get working compute on the free tier.

Two ways to run compute

Akua-managed (default)

Akua provisions servers using its own cloud accounts. No cloud credentials required. Machines are subject to plan quotas and billing.

Plan	Machines	CPU	Memory	Instance types	Machine lifetime
Free	1	2 cores	4 GB	Small only	7 days
Pro	3	8 cores	16 GB	All available	No limit

Bring your own key (BYOM)

Add your own cloud provider API key and Akua provisions machines in your account. You pay the provider directly, with no machine quotas, no lifetime limits, and access to any instance type.

1. Add your API key

   Go to Compute in the dashboard and click Add Credential. Akua validates the token before saving it.

2. Create a compute config

   Click Create Config, select your credential, choose a region, and name the configuration.

3. Provision machines

   Akua uses your config to provision machines in your cloud account when your workloads need resources.

Your API token is stored in an external secrets manager. Akua keeps only a reference, never the token itself. Tokens are re-validated hourly, and you receive a dashboard notification if a token becomes invalid.

When you name a BYOM compute config to match a region (for example, hetzner-fsn1), it transparently overrides Akua’s default system config for that region. No additional configuration in your cluster is required.

Provisioning limits

Akua enforces limits at two levels to keep your infrastructure predictable:

• Allocation quota: how many machines your workspace can own (free: 1, pro: 3). BYOM machines are exempt.
• Concurrency limit: how many machines can be launching at once per cluster (free: 1, pro: 3). This prevents runaway provisioning loops from multiplying in-progress requests.

Both limits are enforced server-side and take effect immediately when your plan changes, with no cluster reconfiguration needed.

See quotas for the full table of limits per plan.

Supported providers

Hetzner Cloud

EU and US regions. Best value for European workloads.

More coming

AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Vultr (planned).

What’s next?

Machines

Lifecycle, provisioning, deletion, and auto-scaling controls.

Suspend and resume

Save money by pausing machines when not in use.

Hetzner Cloud

Regions, instance types, and pricing.

Quotas

Understand resource limits per plan.

Related topics

Add workers manually

Use a bootstrap command to attach your own servers.

Clusters

Understand how clusters work and how compute fits in.

Plans and pricing

Compare plans and understand machine limits.

Compute API

Manage machines programmatically.