E2B vs Tensorlake
Both give each agent a Firecracker microVM that can pause with its memory and wake up warm. E2B is open source and runs in the US, EU and APAC with a 24-hour session cap on Pro, while Tensorlake has no session cap on Pro, bigger machines and GPUs by request.
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
Tensorlake
Tensorlake is a San Francisco company that sells infrastructure for AI agents, with sandboxes as its main product.
Tensorlake Sandboxes are microVMs, backed by Firecracker and Cloud Hypervisor, that you create through an API and that boot in a few hundred milliseconds. Named sandboxes suspend when idle and keep their memory and running processes, and you can copy a running sandbox into several warm clones. Around them Tensorlake sells versioned file systems, hosted Git, an orchestration layer and a bring-your-own-cloud option, aimed at teams running coding agents, evals and RL rollouts.
- Headquarters
- San Francisco
- Investors shown
- Redpoint and Amplify Partners
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 | Tensorlake: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both fit a software factory; neither has nested virtualization for Android emulators, which boat has along with preinstalled coding agents. | 16th cheapest of 367 $4,143 a month | 5th cheapest of 367 $1,010 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An agent that lives on its machine all month hits E2B's 24-hour cap, while Tensorlake Pro has no session cap and boat keeps the machine on. | 51st of 366, with limits $5,348 a month | 9th cheapest of 366 $1,381 a month | 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 Both suit short code runs that start fast and pause with their memory; boat's start-rate limits make big bursts a compromise. | 37th cheapest of 345 $421 a month | 24th cheapest of 345 $250 a month | 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 | 23rd cheapest of 361 $2,354 a month | 5th cheapest of 361 $471 a month | 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 Both are built for many short rollouts that branch from one warm state, and both can clone a running sandbox with its memory. | 2nd cheapest of 360 $9,384 a month | Cheapest of 360 $5,637 a month | 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 | 78th cheapest of 364 $1,975 a month | 24th cheapest of 364 $506 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month E2B's 24-hour cap and 8 GiB machine ceiling make CI a compromise there; boat adds nested virtualization and the fastest measured CPU. | 337th of 377, with limits $1,429 a month | 54th cheapest of 377 $424 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both are built around pausing idle sandboxes, so a box that stays on all day fits boat better, with no session cap and a dedicated IP. | 192nd of 368, with limits $358 a month | 185th of 368, with limits $250 a month | 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 Both have a Linux desktop for computer use; boat streams it at 60fps and can embed it in your app. | 32nd cheapest of 369 $1,342 a month | 9th cheapest of 369 $294 a month | 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 Tensorlake fits browser agents fully while E2B is a compromise in our table; boat adds a 60fps desktop with Chromium and browser control. | 100th of 367, with limits $746 a month | 13th cheapest of 367 $250 a month | 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 | 22nd cheapest of 346 $250 a month | 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 | 121st of 338, with limits $3,484 a month | 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 | 4th cheapest of 360 $250 a month | 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 | Can't run it | 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 | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | E2B | Tensorlake | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel | Firecracker and Cloud Hypervisor microVMs with their own kernel; GPU sandboxes use gVisor | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 12.61 runs/s | No published result | 26.69 runs/s |
| Session length | 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock | No cap on Pro (idle timeout still applies); 2 hours on Free, 24 hours on prepaid credits | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Biggest machine | 8 vCPU / 8 GiB self-serve, more on request; 20 GiB disk on Pro | 16 vCPU / 64 GB RAM / 100 GB disk on Pro | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| Pause and resume | Saves memory and disk; resume takes about 1 second with processes running | Named sandboxes suspend with memory and running processes and restore warm | Disk saved every minute and on stop; resume boots the machine again |
| Clone a running sandbox | Fork with memory, up to 20 copies per call | Copy a running or suspended sandbox into N warm clones with memory | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Nested virtualization | Not supported | Not available (SANDBOX_KVM_AVAILABLE=0) | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes, on the tensorlake/ubuntu-systemd image | Yes, with root and systemd |
| Coding agents | Templates and guides for many agents, run through the command API | You bring and run your own agent on plain OS images | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Secrets injected into outbound HTTPS headers (private beta) | Stored secrets are injected into the sandbox | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; real keys never enter the sandbox |
| Inbound access | HTTPS URL per port, public by default unless you turn on a token | HTTP, WebSocket and gRPC through an authenticated proxy | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected, plus raw TCP and a dedicated IP |
| Outbound rules | Allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or domain | Allow and deny lists by domain, IP or CIDR, or no internet at all | No provider-side allowlist; you set your own firewall as root |
| GPUs | None | GPU sandboxes by request (H100 shown in the docs) | None |
| Where it runs | US by default; EU and APAC on Pro and above; open-source runtime and bring your own cloud on Enterprise | US and EU, or your own cloud account through BYOC | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | E2B | Tensorlake | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | No | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Yes | Yes |
Performance
On the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second and E2B did 12.61, so boat finished about twice as much CPU work in the same time. Tensorlake has no published result on this benchmark, so it can't be compared on CPU speed. This test measures CPU only, not start time.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Tensorlake 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 | Tensorlake, 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 | $250 · Pro | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $368 · Pro · with limits | $250 · Pro | $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 | $1,030 · Pro | $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) | $293 · Pro | $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) | $1,127 · Pro | $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, and more concurrency costs $500 a month per 500 slots.
Tensorlake: Tensorlake Pro is $250 per cycle, which includes $250 of usage, then $0.01 per CU. CPU is billed only while it is actively working, RAM and disk on what you allocate, and a suspended sandbox pays snapshot storage.
Tensorlake: boat 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 the always-on agent does not fit there, and Pro includes only 20 GiB of disk. Tensorlake Pro allows 1,000 sandboxes at once with no session cap, but an ephemeral sandbox ends after 10 idle minutes by default and only named ones can suspend. boat's limit is start rate: at 1,000 short jobs at once even its $2,000 plan caps starts per hour and per day, while both E2B and Tensorlake fit.
| Scenario | E2B | Tensorlake | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
| None that bite |
|
Which one should you use?
Use E2B when
you want an open-source runtime you can host yourself, need APAC regions, or run short jobs that pause and wake on the next request.
- Open source runtime. E2B's runtime is Apache-2.0 and can run on your own Linux host with KVM, so you are never locked in.
- More regions. E2B runs in the US, EU and APAC, which helps teams whose users or data sit in Asia.
- Fast resume and wake on request. A paused E2B sandbox comes back in about a second with its processes running, and can wake on the next request.
Use Tensorlake when
sandboxes must run past 24 hours, need up to 64 GB of RAM or GPUs, or fan out about a thousand warm clones at once.
- No session cap on Pro. A Tensorlake Pro sandbox can run as long as it stays busy, where E2B stops one at 24 hours.
- Bigger machines. Pro sandboxes go up to 16 vCPU, 64 GB of RAM and 100 GB of disk, well past E2B's 8 GiB self-serve ceiling.
- GPUs and wide BYOC. Tensorlake offers GPU sandboxes by request and can run in your AWS, GCP, Azure, CoreWeave, Nebius or bare-metal account.
Where boat fits
E2B and Tensorlake are both built around short microVM jobs that pause and wake up warm. If your agents instead do hours of real work, like installs, builds, Docker, emulators and a desktop, boat gives each one a full VM that stays on, with coding agents built in and keys kept outside.
Emulators and VMs run inside
Neither E2B nor Tensorlake exposes /dev/kvm, so an Android emulator or a VM an agent needs does not start at all. boat gives every sandbox /dev/kvm.
Agents built in, keys kept outside
On both you wire up the agent harness yourself, and Tensorlake injects stored secrets into the sandbox, where one prompt injection can leak them. E2B's outbound header injection is still private beta. boat preinstalls seven agents and keeps keys in a proxy.
Reach it like a server
Neither has raw TCP inbound or a dedicated IP, so a database an agent starts can't be reached, and E2B cuts sessions at 24 hours. boat has 50 HTTPS ports, raw TCP, its own IP and no session cap.
Use boat when your agents do real work for hours: installs, builds, tests, Docker, emulators and a desktop, on a fast full VM with coding agents built in and keys kept outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs E2B and boat vs Tensorlake.
Questions people ask
Is E2B cheaper than Tensorlake?
Only for one coding agent on workdays: $202 on E2B against $250 on Tensorlake Pro. In the other scenarios Tensorlake costs less, for example 50 agents in parallel is $2,773 on E2B against $1,030 on Tensorlake, and E2B does not fit an agent that never stops. boat is $20 and $317 for those two.
Which is faster, E2B or Tensorlake?
E2B scored 12.61 runs per second on the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and Tensorlake has no published result there. boat scored 26.69 on the same test. On start time, E2B resumes a paused sandbox in about a second and Tensorlake says its default image starts in a few hundred milliseconds.
Can E2B and Tensorlake run Docker?
Yes, both run Docker inside the sandbox; Tensorlake uses its tensorlake/ubuntu-systemd image for it. Neither supports nested virtualization, so Android emulators and VMs do not run. boat runs Docker with systemd and exposes /dev/kvm.
Can a sandbox run for days?
On E2B, not in one session: Pro stops a sandbox after 24 hours, though pausing resets the clock. Tensorlake Pro has no session cap, but its idle timeout still ends or suspends a quiet sandbox, 600 seconds by default. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Which one has GPUs?
Tensorlake offers GPU sandboxes by request, running on gVisor. E2B is CPU only, and so is boat.
Can I run E2B or Tensorlake in my own cloud?
Both offer bring your own cloud: E2B on Enterprise in AWS, GCP or Azure, and Tensorlake on AWS, GCP, Azure, CoreWeave, Nebius and bare metal. E2B's runtime is also open source under Apache-2.0. boat runs only in its own EU regions.
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