Help for hosts
Pausing and using your PC
Pause, gaming on your own cards, and switching off safely.
KernelMachine is preparing an invite-only beta; no launch date is set. This describes how it works at launch. Join the waitlist
Pause: the one button
Each machine on your machines page has Pause rentals. While paused, no new rentals start on it. Rentals already running keep going until they end. Click Take rentals again to undo it.
We set one renter price per card model. You can set a private minimum price for each card, or keep a card for yourself. Pause stops new rentals; running rentals finish first.
Using a card yourself
Play a game or run your own AI tools whenever you like. When programs other than your desktop use more than 1 GB of a card's memory, that card is skipped for new rentals automatically, and offered again when you're done.
A card that's already rented stays with its renter until the rental ends, so your own program may run slower meanwhile. To get a card back, press Pause and wait for the rental to end. "Report misuse" stops a rental too, but it's only for misuse, such as crypto mining.
Switching off or restarting
- Press Pause rentals.
- Wait until no rental on that machine says "Running" (open "Recent rentals" under the machine on your machines page).
- Switch off or restart.
- When it's back, click Take rentals again.
Why it matters:
- Cutting off a running rental counts as a problem, even with Pause on. A restart cuts off the rentals on the machine: they can recover on other available cards of the same model, and you aren't paid for their work since their last save.
- Being offline for more than 10 minutes without Pause counts as a problem. With Pause on and nothing running, you can stay off as long as you like.
Each problem restarts the machine's 2-day trial; 3 in 90 days remove it. The rule
Starting another system on the same PC, such as Windows for games, is the same as switching off: pause first.
Things that happen by themselves
- Sleep is off, so the PC stays awake for renters.
- The host program updates itself, between rentals, and goes back to the previous version if an update fails.
- Ubuntu's own security updates keep installing, except for the graphics driver, the Linux kernel and Docker, which Ubuntu's updater leaves alone so it can't break your cards.
- Security updates for those install themselves too, between rentals. The PC may restart once for them; that never counts as a problem.
- Card tests and internet speed checks repeat about once a week. Speed checks run only when nothing is rented.
Updated October 8, 2026. Questions? Email support@kernelmachine.com.