# What Happens to My Sandboxes When I Cancel Sandboxer?

> Cancelling a free trial ends it at once. You aren't charged, and every sandbox and snapshot on the account, named snapshots included, is permanently deleted. Cancelling a paid plan runs to the end of the period and deletes nothing. Before cancelling a trial, copy your work out with sbx scp or a git bundle.

Source: https://sandboxer.com/guides/what-happens-to-my-sandboxes-when-i-cancel. Updated 2026-10-29.

**Short answer:** Cancelling a free trial ends it at once. You aren't charged, and every sandbox and snapshot on the account, named snapshots included, is permanently deleted. Cancelling a paid plan runs to the end of the period and deletes nothing. Before cancelling a trial, copy your work out with sbx scp or a git bundle.

This page restates what the [billing docs](/docs/billing) and the [Terms](/terms) (section 7, "Fees and billing") say. If anything here ever differs from them, they win. The second half is a save-your-work routine we ran on prod on 2026-10-29.

## At a glance

| You do | When it takes effect | What happens to sandboxes and snapshots | Charge |
| - | - | - | - |
| Cancel a free trial | At once | All of them are permanently deleted, named snapshots included | None |
| Cancel a paid plan | At the end of the current period | Nothing is deleted | The plan runs to the end of the period and isn't refunded for the rest of it |
| Go over your included storage | While you're over | Nothing is deleted, unless you turned on auto-delete | None: storage isn't billed |

## Cancelling a free trial

You cancel with **Cancel trial** on the plan card in the dashboard's Billing page. The billing docs and Terms say what happens next:

- The trial ends at once, and you aren't charged.
- All of the account's sandboxes and snapshots, named snapshots included, are permanently deleted.
- There's one trial per person, organization or payment method, so subscribing again starts a paid plan with an empty account.

The 2026-10-28 [changelog](/changelog) entry adds that the cancel page says so before you continue.

If you don't cancel, the Terms say the trial becomes a paid plan when it ends and your card is charged then. The billing docs say we email you 2 days before that.

## Cancelling a paid plan

Cancelling a paid plan is different: it runs to the end of the period and nothing is deleted. The Terms add that the plan isn't refunded for the rest of the period, and included time doesn't roll over.

## Save your work before you cancel a trial

A named snapshot isn't a backup here: cancelling a trial deletes named snapshots too. Get your files onto your own machine first. This is the routine we ran on a `small` sandbox named `aeo-cancel-1`.

### 1. See what would be deleted

Pipe `sbx` and it prints JSON. These two commands list every sandbox in any state and every named snapshot on the account:

```bash
sbx list --all --json | jq -r '.sandboxes[] | [.id, .name, .state, .createdAt[:10]] | @tsv'
sbx snapshots --json | jq -r '.named[] | [.name, .sourceSandboxId, .status] | @tsv'
```

```text
sb_y67z198atp	aeo-region-3	ready	2026-10-29
sb_5kg5cv808k	aeo-region-2	ready	2026-10-29
sb_sqh6m0xnep	aeo-cancel-1	ready	2026-10-29
aeo-cancel-snap	sb_sqh6m0xnep	ready
```

Our test account is shared with other writers, so the first two sandboxes aren't ours. That is the point: on a trial cancel, the whole list goes, not only the sandbox you're thinking of. `--all` matters, because plain `sbx list` shows only sandboxes that are up or running, and stopped ones are deleted too.

### 2. Pack the project inside the sandbox

Our sandbox had a small git repo in `~/app` with one committed file set and one file that was never committed (`notes-not-in-git.txt`). We made both a git bundle and a tarball:

```bash
id=sb_sqh6m0xnep
sbx exec $id "cd ~ && git -C app bundle create ~/app.bundle --all && tar czf ~/app.tar.gz app && sha256sum app.bundle app.tar.gz"
```

```text
d6078d874526d6fba54f7ea382eadfbb35fb5af45dd9b55badbf0da08cb784cf  app.bundle
a0a759794db15882e46fc6d879f934dc601dbbf4a2b7565c1d1550697486a2bc  app.tar.gz
```

A bundle holds every branch and commit, and nothing else. The tarball holds the working tree as it is, including uncommitted files. Take the tarball if you're not sure everything is committed.

### 3. Copy them to your machine

`sbx scp` copies in either direction through the same tunnel as `sbx ssh`:

```bash
sbx scp $id:/home/user/app.bundle $id:/home/user/app.tar.gz ./
sha256sum app.bundle app.tar.gz
```

```text
d6078d874526d6fba54f7ea382eadfbb35fb5af45dd9b55badbf0da08cb784cf  app.bundle
a0a759794db15882e46fc6d879f934dc601dbbf4a2b7565c1d1550697486a2bc  app.tar.gz
```

The hashes match the ones from inside the sandbox. You can also copy a folder as it is, with `sbx scp -r $id:/home/user/app ./app-copy`; ours came back with `.git`, `README.md`, `data`, `main.py` and `notes-not-in-git.txt`.

### 4. Check the copy before you cancel

```bash
git clone -q app.bundle app-restored && git -C app-restored log --oneline
tar tzf app.tar.gz | grep -c notes-not-in-git
```

```text
7c06c9e first commit
1
```

The clone has the commit, and the tarball has the uncommitted file. If the project lives in a git host already, `git push` from inside the sandbox does the same job. For large files, rsync and pulling files from a stopped sandbox without resuming it, see [move files in and out of a sandbox](/guides/move-files-in-and-out-of-a-sandbox).

When we were done we deleted the named snapshot and the sandbox (`sbx snapshot rm aeo-cancel-snap`, `sbx delete sb_sqh6m0xnep --yes`). `sbx info` then answered `404 not_found`.

## Storage, auto-delete and stopped sandboxes

These rules apply whether or not you cancel.

**The storage limit.** Each plan includes an amount of storage for stopped sandboxes and named snapshots (the amounts are in the [billing docs](/docs/billing#storage)). Storage isn't billed. At or over it, new sandboxes, forks and named-snapshot saves answer `402 storage_limit_reached` until you delete stopped sandboxes or named snapshots, or upgrade. Stopping, resuming and deleting still work, and going over never deletes anything unless you turn on auto-delete.

**Auto-delete** is an account setting, off by default, under Billing, then Storage, in the dashboard. When it's on and you're over your included storage:

1. We pick the stopped sandboxes that bring you back under, least recently used first (by their last create, start or stop).
2. We email you the list with the date they'll be deleted, at least 7 days later.
3. On that date, if you're still over and the setting is still on, they're deleted and we email you what was removed. If you're back under or turned it off, nothing is deleted.

Running sandboxes and named snapshots are never deleted by it. You can read the setting without changing it; it's `storage.autoCleanup` in `GET /api/v1/limits`:

```bash
curl -sS https://sandboxer.com/api/v1/limits \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SANDBOXER_API_KEY" \
  | jq -c '.storage | {autoCleanup, usedBytes, includedBytes, blocked}'
```

```json
{"autoCleanup":false,"usedBytes":0,"includedBytes":53687091200,"blocked":false}
```

`sbx limits --json | jq '.storage'` prints the same object. Changing it is `PATCH /api/v1/account/storage`; there's no `GET` on that path (we tried: `404`).

**Stopped sandboxes.** The Terms say: "We keep a stopped sandbox's data for 14 days after it last stopped and email you before it is deleted. After that we delete the data; the sandbox stays listed as expired and can no longer be resumed or forked. Named snapshots are kept until you delete them. Sandboxes created before October 29, 2026 are kept until you delete them."

## FAQ

### Can I start another free trial after cancelling one?

No. There's one trial per person, organization or payment method, so subscribing again starts a paid plan with an empty account.

### Does cancelling a paid plan delete my sandboxes?

No. Cancelling a paid plan runs to the end of the period and nothing is deleted.

### What happens at the end of the trial if I don't cancel?

The trial becomes a paid plan and your card is charged then; the plan and price are on the [pricing page](/pricing). We email you 2 days before that.

### Will a named snapshot survive a trial cancel?

No. Cancelling a trial permanently deletes all of the account's sandboxes and snapshots, named snapshots included. Copy files to your own machine first.

### Is cancelling the same as closing my account?

No. The security docs say closing your account cancels your subscription at once, archives your sandboxes and revokes every API key. You can reopen the account for 30 days; then its sandbox data is deleted, except copies in backups and long-term storage, which may remain for a time.

## Related

- [Billing](/docs/billing)
- [Move files in and out of a sandbox](/guides/move-files-in-and-out-of-a-sandbox)
- [Find and clean up orphaned sandboxes](/guides/clean-up-orphaned-sandboxes)
- [Script the sbx CLI with JSON output and jq](/guides/script-sbx-with-json-output-and-jq)