Best cloud sandboxes for AI agents (2026)
Updated
E2B, Daytona, Modal, boat and Prized compared on pause and resume with memory, fork, what persists, whether an agent can sign up by itself, regions and price, each fact from the vendor's own pages, checked November 5, 2026.
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A cloud sandbox for an AI agent is a machine it creates through an API to run code it wrote or was handed, away from your computer. Five of them differ in what survives a pause, whether a running sandbox can be copied, where it runs, and whether the agent can make the account itself.
Pick one
- Pause with memory, fork a running sandbox, and an agent that signs its person up by itself: Prized. Firecracker microVMs that pause with their memory and processes and fork into live copies; an agent makes the account with the person's email and the code Prized emails them, with no browser and no card (A sandbox your agent can sign up for itself). US West (Oregon) only, and no GPUs, Docker, root or your own image yet (Not yet, root).
- The same pause and fork, in more regions, from your own image: E2B. Firecracker microVMs in the US, EU and Asia Pacific, with templates from your own image, and its stack in your own cloud on Enterprise.
- GPUs, Windows, or no run time limit: Daytona. Containers by default; Linux VM sandboxes pause with their memory and fork.
- GPUs, or a Python stack already on Modal: Modal. gVisor or a VM runtime, regions chosen per sandbox, up to 24 hours a sandbox.
- The lowest hourly price, and full root VMs with Docker, in the EU: boat. Linux VMs from $0.018 an hour on a monthly plan; a stop keeps the disk, not the memory.
Pause, fork and persistence
| Isolation | Pause, memory included | Fork | What persists | Longest run | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prized | Firecracker microVM | Yes, kept on the machine it ran on until you delete it (30 days after last use on the free tier); lost if that machine fails | A running sandbox into live copies, memory included | Paused memory and disk; a box for a machine kept for weeks | 24 hours by default, up to 7 days, extendable (60 minutes of running on the free tier) |
| E2B | Firecracker microVM | Yes, kept until you delete it | A running sandbox, memory included | Paused memory and files | 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; a pause resets it |
| Daytona | Container; Linux VM sandboxes optional | VM sandboxes only | VM sandboxes only | Files when stopped; memory too on VM sandboxes | No limit; by default containers stop after 15 idle minutes and VM sandboxes pause after 60 |
| Modal | gVisor; VM runtime optional | Alpha: a memory snapshot ends the sandbox; restore within 7 days | From a snapshot: the filesystem, or memory too in alpha | Filesystem and directory snapshots (30 days by default), and Volumes | 24 hours; 5 minutes by default |
| boat | Linux VM | No: a stop ends the processes and keeps the disk | From its latest snapshot of the disk | The disk, at least 14 days after a stop; saved snapshots | Stops 1 hour after a start or resume by default; up to 30 days, or no auto-stop, on a paid plan (2 hours on the trial) |
Sign-up, price and regions
| An agent signs up by itself | Free use | 2 vCPU and 4 GB, an hour | Regions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prized | Yes: the person's email and the code emailed to them; no browser, no card | $30 of credit once, no card (for agent sign-ups, within daily limits) | $0.131, 10 GB disk included | US West (Oregon) |
| E2B | No: a person signs up in a browser and copies a key | $100 of credit once, no card | $0.166 | US, EU, Asia Pacific |
| Daytona | No: a person makes the account and a key in the dashboard | $200 of compute, no card | $0.166 | US, EU |
| Modal | No: sign-up is with GitHub, Google or SSO, and setup opens a browser | $30 a month on Starter, with a payment method on file | $0.238 (a core is 2 vCPU) | US, EU, Asia Pacific, chosen per sandbox |
| boat | Registers through auth.md; then the person signs in in a browser and adds a card before the first sandbox | 7-day trial with a card: 25 hours of compute | $0.018 on a plan from $20 a month, which comes back as sandbox time | EU (Germany, Finland, France) |
Prices are list prices for a running sandbox, before plans or region surcharges. Prized, E2B and Daytona bill the vCPU and memory you ask for and boat the size you pick, busy or idle; Modal bills the larger of what you ask for and what you use. Prized, E2B, Daytona and Modal in more depth: Prized vs E2B, Daytona and Modal.
Common questions
Which cloud sandbox can an agent sign up for by itself?
Of these five, Prized: the agent registers with its person's email, the person reads it the 6-digit code Prized emails them, and the agent gets an API key, with no browser and no card (A sandbox your agent can sign up for itself). boat also takes an agent's registration, then needs a browser sign-in and a card. E2B, Daytona and Modal have a person sign up in a browser.
Which sandboxes pause with their memory?
Prized and E2B, and Daytona's Linux VM sandboxes; Modal's memory snapshots are in alpha. A boat stop keeps the disk and ends the processes.
Which is cheapest?
boat, at $0.018 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GB, within a monthly plan. Pay as you go, with no plan: Prized at $0.131, then E2B and Daytona at $0.166.
Which has GPUs?
Daytona and Modal. Prized, E2B and boat sandboxes have none.
Sources
Checked November 5, 2026:
- E2B: pricing, persistence, fork, sandbox lifetime, SKILL.md (sign-up), home page (regions, BYOC).
- Daytona: pricing, isolation, sandboxes, Linux VM sandboxes, regions, docs home (sign-up).
- Modal: pricing, billing (payment method), sandboxes, snapshots, regions, sign-up, setup (browser).
- boat: docs index (sizes, prices, plans, trial, stop and snapshots), auth.md (agent registration), FAQ (regions).
- Prized: Sandboxes, Billing, Agent sign-in.
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