Namespace vs OpenAI Containers
Namespace is a build and dev platform: CI runners and Devboxes that keep their files, on Linux, macOS and Windows. OpenAI Containers are short-lived boxes inside OpenAI's model API, where the model runs code until the box expires after 20 minutes without use.
The companies and products
Namespace
Namespace is a dev platform for fast builds, tests and coding environments: CI runners, build caches and Devboxes, on its own hardware.
Most of Namespace is CI: a faster drop-in for GitHub Actions runners, with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching. Its Devboxes are remote Linux and macOS machines with persistent storage, made for people and AI coding agents, and they also host sessions for Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents and Devin. It is a different kind of product from boat, so this page compares the part where they overlap: a machine an agent works on.
- Products
- GitHub Actions runners, Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching, Devboxes, and a compute API
- Hardware
- Its own hardware in its own racks: AMD EPYC for Linux and Windows, Apple M4 Pro or M5 Max for macOS
- Linux Devboxes
- Run from a container image you choose and include Docker; the docs do not say whether each one has its own kernel
- Funding
- Announced a $42M Series B
- Compliance
- Trust center lists SOC 2 Type II
OpenAI Containers
OpenAI Containers are the sandboxes OpenAI runs for its own model tools: Code Interpreter, Hosted Shell and the Agents API's hosted sandbox.
This is a different kind of product from boat: a tool inside OpenAI's model API, not a machine you rent. You create a container through the API or let a Responses call make one, and the model runs Python or shell commands in it on a fixed Debian 12 image without sudo, until it expires after 20 minutes without use. It is built for apps that already call OpenAI models and want them to run code, read files and make charts without running any servers.
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. “80th cheapest of 377” means 79 of the other 376 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 | Namespace: price rank | OpenAI Containers: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent that keeps a repo for days loses it when an OpenAI container expires, and hits a 4 to 24 hour cap on a Namespace Devbox; boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 39th of 367, with limits $3,495 a month | 356th of 367, with limits $17,371 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that never stops has to be restarted at least once a day on Namespace and touched every 20 minutes on OpenAI; a boat machine just keeps running. | 303rd of 366, with limits $6,645 a month | 341st of 366, with limits $13,140 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 Running short pieces of model-written code is what OpenAI Containers are built for, but in our priced bursts Namespace comes to $250 a month against $6,000 on OpenAI and $2,000 on boat. | 247th of 345, with limits $250 a month | 194th of 345, with limits $6,000 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 Your users cannot open anything inside an OpenAI container, and Namespace's HTTPS URLs need a Namespace login; boat gives each sandbox token-protected URLs for up to 50 ports. | 284th of 361, with limits $2,068 a month | 361st of 361, with limits $3,780 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 | 356th of 360, with limits $9,012 a month | 191st of 360, with limits $30,000 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 | 282nd of 364, with limits $1,043 a month | 360th of 364, with limits $5,760 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 CI runners are Namespace's main product, with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caches; OpenAI documents no Docker or root, and boat runs CI jobs on full VMs with Docker and /dev/kvm. | 80th cheapest of 377 $765 a month | 345th of 377, with limits $1,728 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A Namespace Devbox keeps its files and stops when idle but is shut down after at most 24 hours; OpenAI containers have no SSH and no persistent disk, and a boat machine stays up as long as you want. | 126th of 368, with limits $168 a month | 362nd of 368, with limits $1,051 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 Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only, OpenAI's hosted browser runs inside the Agents API beta, and boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop you can embed. | 67th of 369, with limits $982 a month | 351st of 369, with limits $5,280 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 | 285th of 367, with limits $789 a month | 328th of 367, with limits $1,440 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 | 259th of 346, with limits $332 a month | 328th of 346, with limits $1,755 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 | 226th of 338, with limits $9,012 a month | 311th of 338, with limits $35,100 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 | 242nd of 360, with limits $339 a month | 308th of 360, with limits $870 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 Only Namespace fits: it runs macOS on Apple Silicon, while OpenAI containers and boat are Linux only. | 6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Namespace | OpenAI Containers | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A dev platform: CI runners, build caches and Devboxes you create and connect to | A sandbox tool the model uses inside OpenAI's API | A cloud VM you create, keep, stop and reach from outside |
| Isolation | Linux Devboxes run from a container image on Namespace's own hardware; the docs do not say if each has its own kernel | A fully sandboxed virtual machine; hypervisor not named | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU speed (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 21.79 runs/s | Not measured; vCPU per size not published | 26.69 runs/s |
| Root, Docker and nested virtualization | Docker in Linux Devboxes; /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances, not on macOS or Windows | Commands do not run with sudo; no Docker or /dev/kvm documented | Root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| How long a session can run | Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, even while you work, raisable to 24 at most | Expires after 20 minutes without use; Agents API sandboxes after an hour without activity | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Files after a stop | A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used | Data is discarded when the container expires; Agents API keeps only files in /workspace/outputs | Disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing and comes back |
| Idle stop and wake | Devboxes stop after an idle timeout (15 minutes to 8 hours) and start again when you connect | An idle container expires and is deleted | Machines run until you stop them |
| Fork and suspend | No fork; compute instances can suspend and resume with RAM kept | No fork; templates save configuration, not a running workspace | Fork a running sandbox with its disk into a new one |
| Custom images | Any container image you choose, plus Devbox blueprints | Fixed Debian 12 image; you upload files or skills into each container | Named snapshots of a set-up machine, reused as templates; no Dockerfile builds |
| Reaching the sandbox | SSH, HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login, TCP through a CLI port-forward; no public IP | None; you reach the container only through the API | SSH, token-protected HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, raw TCP |
| Outbound internet | Open, with optional egress policies to block, watch or allow domains per blueprint, runner or instance | Code Interpreter and Hosted Shell: off until an admin sets an org domain allowlist; Agents API sandboxes: on by default | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Coding agents | Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions run by those partners; an MCP server lets your agent create Devboxes | Agents API (beta) drives a managed Codex harness from outside, with steering, events and webhooks | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Desktop and computer use | Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances | Hosted browser for the Agents API computer_use tool | 60fps Linux desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Operating systems | Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up | Linux only (Debian 12) | Linux only; Wine for Windows apps |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Namespace | OpenAI Containers | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | No | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | No | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | No | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | No | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | 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 | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
In StarSling's public run of 2026-09-29, at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second and Namespace did 21.79, so the same build takes about a fifth longer on Namespace. OpenAI Containers are not in that benchmark, and OpenAI does not publish how many vCPU each container size gets, so there is no comparable number for them.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Namespace measured on: Linux compute instance (unit-minutes, PAYG/overage $0.0015). OpenAI Containers 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 | Namespace, a month | OpenAI Containers, 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 | $50 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $228 · API pay as you go · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $176 · Devbox (pay as you go) · with limits | $1,051 · API pay as you go · with limits | $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 | $2,198 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $11,405 · API pay as you go · with limits | $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 | $1,214 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $1,620 · API pay as you go · with limits | $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 | $3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $6,000 · API pay as you go · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Namespace: Devboxes are billed in Devbox Minutes at $0.004 each, pay as you go on every plan: a 4 vCPU / 8 GB Devbox uses one a minute. Plan minutes cover runners and instances, not Devboxes, and stored files cost $0.20 per GB-month.
OpenAI Containers: OpenAI bills each container session by the minute for the memory size you pick, with a 5-minute minimum, and model tokens are billed on top. There is no plan fee.
OpenAI Containers: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
On Namespace the limit that bites is time: a Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so the agent that never stops restarts at least once a day, and Namespace does not publish an egress price. OpenAI Containers fit none of the five scenarios as written: no persistent disk, no Docker, no internet in Code Interpreter and Hosted Shell until an admin allows domains, and no published vCPU or limit on how many run at once. On boat the 1,000 short jobs at once get queued, because they need more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | Namespace | OpenAI Containers | 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 Namespace when
you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or Devboxes that keep their files and stop when idle.
- macOS and Windows. Useful if you build iOS or Mac apps or test on Windows: Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows machines.
- CI runners and build caches. Useful if you want faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching.
- A machine that keeps its files. Useful if work spans days: a Devbox keeps its storage, stops when idle and starts again when you connect.
Use OpenAI Containers when
your app already calls OpenAI models and the model only needs to run short pieces of code on files you give it.
- Built into the model call. Useful if your app already calls OpenAI models: one tool in a request gives the model a place to run code.
- Locked-down network by default. Useful if code must reach only chosen hosts: Code Interpreter and Hosted Shell start with no outbound access.
- Nothing to run or clean up. Useful for short jobs: OpenAI creates the container, bills it by the minute and deletes it once it sits idle.
Where boat fits
Namespace is mostly a CI and dev machine platform, and OpenAI Containers are a code tool for its models. If what you are really running is agents that work for hours or days, boat gives each one a full VM with no session cap, a disk that stays, and ports you can open from outside.
A whole machine with root
OpenAI runs commands without sudo and documents no Docker, so an agent stops at its first apt install. Namespace Devboxes have Docker, but /dev/kvm is on compute instances only. boat has root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm everywhere.
No clock on the work
A Namespace Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours, even mid-task. An OpenAI container is deleted after 20 idle minutes, with its files. Your code has to restart, re-upload and resume. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Reachable from outside
An agent that builds a web app cannot show it from an OpenAI container, which takes no inbound connections. Namespace URLs need a Namespace login and there is no public IP. boat gives token-protected HTTPS on 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
Use boat when your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full, faster VM with no session cap, root, Docker and /dev/kvm, a disk that stays, ports you can reach, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs Namespace and boat vs OpenAI Containers.
Questions people ask
Is Namespace cheaper than OpenAI Containers?
In every scenario we priced, yes: one coding agent on workdays comes to $50 a month on Namespace and $228 on OpenAI, and 50 agents in parallel come to $2,198 against $11,405. OpenAI also bills model tokens on top. boat comes to $20 and $317 for the same two.
Which is faster, Namespace or OpenAI Containers?
Only Namespace has a public measurement: 21.79 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, against 26.69 for boat. OpenAI does not publish the vCPU behind each container size, and its containers are not in that benchmark.
Can OpenAI Containers run Docker like Namespace?
OpenAI's docs say hosted shell commands do not run with sudo, and no Docker support is documented. Namespace Linux Devboxes include Docker, and boat gives root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every sandbox.
How long can a session last on each?
A Namespace Devbox runs up to 4 hours on Developer, 5 on Team and 24 on Business, even while you work. An OpenAI container expires after 20 minutes without use and its data is discarded. boat has no session cap on paid plans and keeps its disk when it stops.
Can I open a web app running inside them?
Not inside an OpenAI container: it has no ports, URLs or SSH. Namespace gives HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login, and TCP through a CLI port-forward. boat gives each sandbox token-protected HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
Is boat SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.ascii.dev and our data retention policy at docs.boat.dev/data-retention.
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