Best / Compare / Agent sandboxes
Agent sandbox and VM pricing, normalized
For bursty agent work billed by the second, boat is the cheapest published rate ($0.036/hour for 4 vCPU/8 GB, $20/month minimum, EU only). For one always-on box, a Hetzner CPX32 ($41.99/month cap) or an exe.dev pool ($15/month for 2 vCPU/4 GB) is cheapest. E2B and Daytona cost the same per hour ($0.33 for 4 vCPU/8 GB) and are built for short sandboxes from an SDK.
Prices from each provider's official pricing page, checked 16 Oct 2026. USD, excluding tax. 24/7 = 730 hours. "Not published" means the pricing page does not list it.
Price per hour, same machine size
| Provider | 2 vCPU / 4 GB per hour | 4 vCPU / 8 GB per hour | 24/7 per month (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| boat | $0.018 | $0.036 | $26.28 | Per second, $20/month minimum |
| exe.dev | $0.105 (or $15/month pool) | $0.21 | $153.30 standalone; $151.65 as a Work pool | Reserved pool per month, or standalone VMs per hour |
| E2B | $0.1656 | $0.3312 | $241.78 (sessions max 24 h on Pro, $150/month plan) | Per second |
| Daytona | $0.1656 | $0.3312 | $241.78 | Per second |
| Modal Sandboxes | $0.2379 | $0.4759 | $347.39 | Per second |
| Fly.io Machines | $0.0917 performance / $0.0353 shared | Not published on pricing page | $66.00 for performance-2x 4 GB (2 vCPU) | Per second while started; stopped = rootfs storage only |
| Morph Cloud | $0.10 | $0.20 | $146.00 | Per MCU-hour from a credit pool |
| Vercel Sandbox | $0.1104 at 10% CPU · $0.3408 at 100% | $0.2208 at 10% CPU · $0.6816 at 100% | $161.18 at 10% CPU; $497.57 at 100% (24 h max per session) | Active CPU per hour used + memory per GB-hour (1-min minimum) |
| Hetzner Cloud | $0.0368 (CPX22) | $0.0673 (CPX32) | $41.99 (monthly cap) | Per hour, capped at the monthly price |
What you actually get
| Provider | Machine type | systemd | Max lifetime / persistence | Free tier | Regions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| boat | Full VM (Ubuntu) | Yes | Persistent; stop snapshots and pauses billing; default TTL 1 h (overridable) | 7-day trial, 25 compute hours | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
| exe.dev | Full VM (KVM) | Yes | Persistent disks, always-on | None published | Personal: your region; Work: any region |
| E2B | Firecracker microVM | Not published | 1 h per session (Hobby), 24 h (Pro) | One-time $100 credit | Not published |
| Daytona | Sandbox (type not stated on pricing page) | Not published | Not published on pricing page | $200 free compute; 5 GiB storage free | Not published on pricing page |
| Modal Sandboxes | Container | No (container) | Not published on pricing page | $30/month included compute (Starter) | Region selection costs 1.15–1.75× base |
| Fly.io Machines | Firecracker microVM | Not published | Persistent; stop/start | Trial: 2 h of Machine runtime or 7 days | Many regions worldwide |
| Morph Cloud | VM (MorphVM, snapshot and branch) | Not published | Snapshots persist (8 vCPU snapshot ≈ $0.12/month) | Developer tier $0, buy MCUs | Not published |
| Vercel Sandbox | Firecracker microVM | Not published | 45 min (Hobby), 24 h per session (Pro); resumable | Hobby: 5 CPU-h + 420 GB-h/month | 19 regions (iad1 default) |
| Hetzner Cloud | Full VM | Yes | Persistent until you delete it | None | Germany, Finland, US (Ashburn, Hillsboro), Singapore |
Best for
- boat
Many parallel agent VMs that start, work, and stop — cheapest per-second rate with real systemd.
- exe.dev
A durable always-on box (or a pool of small VMs) for a few long-running agents — $15/month for 2 vCPU/4 GB.
- E2B
Short code-execution sandboxes created from an SDK inside your own agent product.
- Daytona
Fast-starting SDK sandboxes, plus GPU and Windows options when you need them.
- Modal Sandboxes
Python-heavy agents that also need GPUs and autoscaling in the same platform.
- Fly.io Machines
Agent machines close to US/Asia users, with auto-stop when idle.
- Morph Cloud
Snapshotting one prepared machine and branching it into many agents.
- Vercel Sandbox
Agents that mostly wait on LLM calls, since idle CPU time is not billed.
- Hetzner Cloud
The cheapest always-on VM you manage yourself, for steady agents.
Many fast throwaway VMs vs one always-on VM with a few agents
One always-on VM wins when the work is steady, a handful of agents is enough, and they can safely share files and logins. It costs less per hour and there is less to run.
Many throwaway VMs win in three cases:
- Bursts. 100 agents each try a fix or test a pull request at once. In parallel that takes about 10 minutes; queued on one machine it is 100 × 10 min ≈ 17 hours.
- Isolation. Every agent gets a clean machine, so one bad command or messy dependency cannot break the others or leak your secrets.
- Paying only for active time. If agents work an hour a day you pay for that hour, not 24.
Rule of thumb: when a machine would be busy more than about 4 hours a day, keep an always-on VM. Below that, or when you need parallel runs or clean isolation, use per-second sandboxes.
Break-even, with the numbers above: a Hetzner CPX32 is $41.99/month. E2B or Daytona at $0.3312/hour reach that after 127 hours (about 4.2 hours a day). An exe.dev Personal pool is $15/month; its standalone VMs at $0.105/hour reach that after 143 hours. boat at $0.036/hour costs $26.28 even running 24/7, so its trade-off is the $20 minimum and EU-only regions, not the hourly rate.
The 100-agent burst, priced: 100 × 4 vCPU/8 GB × 10 minutes = 16.7 machine-hours. That is about $0.60 on boat, $3.33 on Morph, and $5.52 on E2B or Daytona.
Show the math
- boat
- $20 = 2,000,000 s of 4 vCPU/8 GB → $20 ÷ 555.6 h = $0.036/h; 2 vCPU/4 GB bills at 0.5× = $0.018/h; 730 h × $0.036 = $26.28. Source: https://boat.dev (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- exe.dev
- Standalone $0.105 per 2 vCPU/4 GB-hour; 4 vCPU/8 GB = 2 × $0.105 = $0.21/h; × 730 = $153.30. Work pool: $75 includes 2 vCPU/4 GB + $0.105 × 730 = $151.65. Personal pool $15/month = $0.0205/h for 2 vCPU/4 GB; larger Personal pool prices not published. Source: https://exe.dev/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- E2B
- vCPU $0.000014/s × 3,600 = $0.0504/h; RAM $0.0000045/GiB-s × 3,600 = $0.0162/GiB-h. 2×0.0504 + 4×0.0162 = $0.1656; doubled = $0.3312; × 730 = $241.78. Source: https://e2b.dev/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Daytona
- vCPU $0.0504/h, memory $0.0162/GiB-h → 2×0.0504 + 4×0.0162 = $0.1656; 4/8 = $0.3312; × 730 = $241.78. Storage over 5 GiB extra. Source: https://www.daytona.io/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Modal Sandboxes
- Sandbox CPU $0.00003942 per physical core-s (1 core = 2 vCPU) × 3,600 = $0.1419/h per 2 vCPU; memory $0.00000667/GiB-s × 3,600 = $0.0240/GiB-h. 0.1419 + 4×0.0240 = $0.2379; 4/8 = $0.4759; × 730 = $347.39. Source: https://modal.com/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Fly.io Machines
- Fly monthly prices assume 30 days (720 h): performance-2x 4 GB $66 ÷ 720 = $0.0917/h. shared-cpu-2x 2 GB $13.39 + 2 GB × $6 = $25.39 ÷ 720 = $0.0353/h. A 4 vCPU/8 GB price is not on the pricing page. Source: https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/ (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Morph Cloud
- MCUs/h = max(vCPU, ceil(RAM/4 GiB), ceil(disk/16 GiB)); 2/4 = 2 MCU × $0.05 = $0.10/h; 4/8 = 4 MCU = $0.20/h; × 730 = $146. Team plan: 20% off ($0.16/h). Source: https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Vercel Sandbox
- iad1 Pro: Active CPU $0.128/vCPU-h, memory $0.0212/GB-h. 2/4 at 100%: 2×0.128 + 4×0.0212 = $0.3408; at 10% CPU: 0.0256 + 0.0848 = $0.1104. 4/8 doubles. × 730. Source: https://vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox/pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026)
- Hetzner Cloud
- Hetzner price table after the 15 Jun 2026 adjustment, EU locations, USD excl. VAT: CPX22 $0.0368/h, $22.99/month; CPX32 $0.0673/h, $41.99/month. IPv4 extra. Source: https://docs.hetzner.com/general/infrastructure-and-availability/price-adjustment/ (checked 16 Oct 2026)
FAQ
- What is the cheapest sandbox for AI agents?
- Per second: boat at $0.036/hour for 4 vCPU/8 GB ($20/month minimum, EU only). Always-on: an exe.dev Personal pool at $15/month for 2 vCPU/4 GB, or Hetzner CPX32 at $41.99/month for 4 vCPU/8 GB.
- When should I spin up many throwaway VMs instead of one always-on VM?
- When work comes in bursts (100 agents finish in 10 minutes instead of hours in a queue), when each agent needs a clean machine so broken dependencies or leaked secrets cannot spread, or when the machine would sit idle most of the day.
- When is one always-on VM cheaper?
- When the machine is busy more than about 4 hours a day. A Hetzner CPX32 at $41.99/month equals 127 hours of E2B or Daytona at $0.3312/hour.
- Which agent sandboxes give a real VM with systemd?
- boat, exe.dev, and Hetzner Cloud run full VMs with systemd. E2B, Fly.io, and Vercel use Firecracker microVMs; Modal uses containers.
- Are E2B and Daytona the same price?
- Yes on published rates: $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour, so $0.3312/hour for 4 vCPU/8 GB. E2B Pro adds a $150/month plan fee.
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