E2B vs Instabox
Both give each agent its own Firecracker microVM that can pause with its memory. E2B has published plans, several sizes, forks of running sandboxes and a 24-hour session cap, while Instabox launched today as a free invite-only beta with one machine size and 5 machines per account.
The companies and products
E2B
E2B calls itself the AI agent cloud: an API that gives each agent session its own isolated Linux machine.
Every E2B sandbox is a Firecracker microVM that boots from a snapshot, so it starts fast and can be paused and resumed with its memory. You build custom sandboxes from templates based on a Docker image, and drive them from Python or JavaScript SDKs. It is built for teams that run many short code, data or agent jobs, and its runtime is open source.
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM per sandbox
- Bring your own cloud
- Enterprise data plane in your AWS, GCP or Azure account
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II; HIPAA BAA on request
- Machine size
- 1 to 8 vCPU and 1 to 8 GiB RAM, CPU only
Instabox
Instabox, made by InsForge, gives each AI agent its own Linux computer in the cloud. It launched on 2026-10-14 as an invite-only beta.
Each Instabox machine is a Firecracker microVM with its own kernel, root and Docker, started from one of four templates (agent-browser, universal, herdr or orca) or from your own snapshot. Every machine is 4 vCPU / 8 GiB with 20 GB of storage, and you drive it from a CLI, a TypeScript SDK or an HTTP API, with SSH, mosh, public port URLs and a desktop for computer use. It is aimed at developers who want a cloud box for a coding agent.
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM per machine
- Machines per account
- 5, in any state: paused and stopped ones count
- Company
- InsForge AI, Inc.
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “16th cheapest of 367” means 15 of the other 366 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | E2B: price rank | Instabox: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month E2B forks a running sandbox with its memory, while Instabox only copies a stopped machine; boat forks running sandboxes too and goes up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB. | 16th cheapest of 367 $4,143 a month | No published price | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that lives on its machine all month hits E2B's 24-hour cap, while Instabox documents no cap but pauses idle machines after 30 minutes unless you turn that off. | 51st of 366, with limits $5,348 a month | No published price | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month E2B is built for short code runs that pause with their memory and wake on the next request; Instabox has no published price to plan this around yet. | 37th cheapest of 345 $421 a month | No published price | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Instabox allows 5 machines per account, paused and stopped ones included, so it cannot give a sandbox to each of many users today; E2B and boat both fit. | 23rd cheapest of 361 $2,354 a month | No published price | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month E2B's memory forks and high start rate suit many short rollouts that branch from the same state, which Instabox's 5-machine cap does not allow. | 2nd cheapest of 360 $9,384 a month | No published price | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month Instabox's 5-machine cap limits how many evals run at once, while E2B and boat run many in parallel. | 78th cheapest of 364 $1,975 a month | No published price | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month CI runners that build Android apps or VM images need /dev/kvm: E2B says nested virtualization is not supported, Instabox does not document it, and boat exposes it. | 337th of 377, with limits $1,429 a month | No published price | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 192nd of 368, with limits $358 a month | No published price | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month All three have a Linux desktop for computer use; Instabox can share a view or control link, and boat streams its desktop at 60fps. | 32nd cheapest of 369 $1,342 a month | No published price | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 100th of 367, with limits $746 a month | No published price | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 57th cheapest of 346 $554 a month | No published price | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 227th of 338, with limits $9,223 a month | No published price | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 11th cheapest of 360 $1,043 a month | No published price | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month | Can't run it | No published price | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month | Can't run it | No published price | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | E2B | Instabox | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel and root | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Machine sizes | 1 to 8 vCPU and 1 to 8 GiB RAM self-serve, more on request | One size for everyone: 4 vCPU / 8 GiB with 20 GB storage; other sizes are refused | Several sizes, up to 8 vCPU / 16 GB on the $20 plan and 16 vCPU / 32 GB on $100 and above |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 12.61 runs/s | Not measured | 26.69 runs/s |
| Session length | Up to 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock | No cap documented; idle machines pause after 30 minutes unless you turn that off | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Machines at once | 20 on Hobby, 100 on Pro, up to 1,100 with paid add-ons | 5 per account, paused and stopped ones included | 50 agents at once fit on three $20 seats |
| Docker | Docker runs inside, with root | Docker and Docker Compose run inside, with root | Docker and Compose run inside, with root and systemd |
| Nested virtualization | Not supported | Not documented | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Pause and resume | Saves memory and disk, resumes in about 1 second, and can wake on the next HTTP request or SDK call | Keeps memory and running programs, usually resumes in about a second; a visit to a port URL does not wake it | Stop keeps the disk; start boots the machine again |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox with its memory, up to 20 copies per call | Fork copies a stopped machine only | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Public port URLs | HTTPS URL per port, public by default unless you turn on a token; no dedicated IP | HTTPS on up to 16 ports, open to anyone with the URL; offline while the machine is paused | HTTPS on up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| SSH | SSH into the sandbox | SSH through a gateway with short-lived certificates, paste-anywhere SSH tokens and mosh | SSH into every sandbox |
| Outbound rules | Allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or domain | Not documented | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Secrets injected into outbound HTTPS headers (private beta) | Vault writes your secrets into each machine as environment variables or files | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; real keys never enter the sandbox |
| Regions | US by default; EU and APAC on Pro and above, enabled by support | Not published | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | E2B | Instabox | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Not published | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Not published | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Not published | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | Not published | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Not published | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | Not published | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Not published | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Not published | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | No | No | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Not published | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Not published | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
E2B and boat were measured in the same StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, a Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB: E2B did 12.61 runs per second and boat did 26.69, about twice as much CPU work. Instabox has no comparable measurement, so this page makes no speed claim for it. Instabox says a new machine's shell is ready in under a second; that has not been measured either.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Instabox has no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | E2B, a month | Instabox, a month | boat, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $202 · Pro | No published price | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $368 · Pro · with limits | No published price | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $2,773 · Pro | No published price | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $1,395 · Pro+ (600 concurrent) | No published price | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $2,797 · Pro++ (1,100 concurrent) | No published price | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
E2B: E2B bills per second for the vCPU and RAM you set, idle time included, until you pause or kill the sandbox. Pro costs $150 a month for higher limits, with no usage credit.
Instabox: Instabox is free during the beta, with 5 machines per user, and has no published price yet, so no bill can be compared with E2B's or boat's.
Instabox: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. You pay per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
E2B caps a session at 24 hours on Pro, so an agent that never stops has to pause and resume, and Pro includes 20 GiB of disk. Instabox has no published rate, so none of the scenarios can be priced, and its 5-machine cap would rule out the 50-agent and user-sandbox scenarios even while it is free. boat has no session cap on paid plans, but its start limits are too low for a burst of 1,000 short jobs, where E2B Pro++ only queues bursts above 300 starts a minute.
| Scenario | E2B | Instabox | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use E2B when
you run many short jobs that pause, fork or wake on request, need more than five sandboxes at once, or must run in the US or APAC.
- Forks with memory and wake on request. For short jobs that branch or sleep: E2B forks a running sandbox with its memory and wakes a paused one on the next request.
- Room to grow. For teams past a handful of agents: E2B offers sizes up to 8 vCPU and runs 100 sandboxes at once on Pro.
- Outbound rules, regions and open source. For locked-down setups: E2B limits outbound hosts, runs in the US, EU and APAC, and publishes its runtime as open source.
Use Instabox when
you want to try a few free 4 vCPU / 8 GiB agent machines during its beta, with memory pause, mosh and no documented session cap.
- Free during the beta. For trying things out: during the beta, each account can run 5 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GiB for free.
- No session cap documented. For long tasks on a few machines: Instabox documents no maximum run time, while E2B stops a session at 24 hours.
- SSH gateway with mosh. For working in a terminal: its SSH gateway relays mosh, so a session survives sleep and network changes.
Where boat fits
If your agents do hours of real work, with builds, Docker, emulators and apps they serve, look at boat. It gives each one a full VM on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts that did about twice E2B's CPU work on the same benchmark, with no session cap on paid plans and published sizes, plans and limits.
Android emulators and VMs can start
E2B says nested virtualization is not supported, and Instabox does not document it, so an agent that builds Android apps or VM images cannot start an emulator on either. boat exposes /dev/kvm in every sandbox.
Port URLs that are private by default
E2B port URLs are public unless you remember to turn on a token, and Instabox URLs are open to anyone, so you add your own login. boat URLs carry a token by default, on up to 50 ports plus raw TCP.
Agents and keys built in
On both you run the agent yourself, and Instabox writes your secrets into the machine, where a prompt injection can read them. boat preinstalls seven coding agents behind one API and keeps real keys outside the sandbox in a credentials proxy.
Use boat when your agents work for hours on builds, Docker, emulators and apps they serve, and need a fast machine, private port URLs and published terms. Compare it one to one: boat vs E2B and boat vs Instabox.
Questions people ask
Is E2B cheaper than Instabox?
It can't be compared yet. Instabox is free during its beta, with 5 machines per user, and publishes no price for later. E2B bills per second, and one coding agent on workdays comes to $202 a month on Pro in our scenario.
Which is faster, E2B or Instabox?
Only E2B has a CPU measurement: 12.61 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, against 26.69 for boat. Instabox has not been benchmarked, and its claim of a shell in under a second has not been measured.
Can E2B and Instabox run Docker?
Yes, both run Docker inside the sandbox with root. For Android emulators or VMs, E2B says nested virtualization is not supported and Instabox does not document it, while boat exposes /dev/kvm.
Can an agent run for days on E2B or Instabox?
Not in one E2B session: it stops after 24 hours on Pro and 1 hour on Hobby, though pausing resets the clock. Instabox documents no cap, but pauses idle machines after 30 minutes unless you turn that off. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Can I fork a running sandbox?
On E2B, yes: it forks a running sandbox with its memory, up to 20 copies per call. Instabox's fork copies a stopped machine only. boat forks a running sandbox with its disk and keeps the original working.
Is Instabox free?
Yes, for now. Its pricing page says it is free until they figure out pricing, with 5 machines of 4 vCPU and 8 GB for everyone, and access is an invite-only beta. No end date or later price is published.
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