diff --git a/openhands/runtime/builder/remote.py b/openhands/runtime/builder/remote.py
index 2e2c67c5a8f3..eb35e13b5c1c 100644
--- a/openhands/runtime/builder/remote.py
+++ b/openhands/runtime/builder/remote.py
@@ -18,10 +18,12 @@
 class RemoteRuntimeBuilder(RuntimeBuilder):
     """This class interacts with the remote Runtime API for building and managing container images."""
 
-    def __init__(self, api_url: str, api_key: str):
+    def __init__(
+        self, api_url: str, api_key: str, session: requests.Session | None = None
+    ):
         self.api_url = api_url
         self.api_key = api_key
-        self.session = requests.Session()
+        self.session = session or requests.Session()
         self.session.headers.update({'X-API-Key': self.api_key})
 
     def build(
diff --git a/openhands/runtime/impl/remote/remote_runtime.py b/openhands/runtime/impl/remote/remote_runtime.py
index ebc1a86b384b..bb5135dff530 100644
--- a/openhands/runtime/impl/remote/remote_runtime.py
+++ b/openhands/runtime/impl/remote/remote_runtime.py
@@ -66,7 +66,9 @@ def __init__(
             )
 
         self.runtime_builder = RemoteRuntimeBuilder(
-            self.config.sandbox.remote_runtime_api_url, self.config.sandbox.api_key
+            self.config.sandbox.remote_runtime_api_url,
+            self.config.sandbox.api_key,
+            self.session,
         )
         self.runtime_id: str | None = None
         self.runtime_url: str | None = None
diff --git a/openhands/runtime/utils/request.py b/openhands/runtime/utils/request.py
index 2a0e17aa0fba..e05a083e7b0d 100644
--- a/openhands/runtime/utils/request.py
+++ b/openhands/runtime/utils/request.py
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ def send_request(
             _json = response.json()
         except (requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError, json.decoder.JSONDecodeError):
             _json = None
+        finally:
+            response.close()
         raise RequestHTTPError(
             e,
             response=e.response,