OpenAI Containers vs Claude Managed Agents
OpenAI Containers are a tool inside OpenAI's model API: the model runs code in a box that expires after 20 minutes without use. Claude Managed Agents is a hosted agent: Anthropic's harness runs Claude in its own container, which sleeps between messages and keeps its files for up to 30 days.
The companies and products
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.
Claude Managed Agents
Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's ready-made agent harness: Claude runs as an autonomous agent in a cloud sandbox that Anthropic manages, and you talk to it through an events API.
This is an agent platform, not a sandbox you rent. You define an agent (model, prompt, tools, MCP servers, skills) and an environment, then start sessions, send messages as events and stream back what Claude does; the harness handles tool calls, prompt caching and compaction. Each session gets its own Ubuntu container, or runs its tools on a worker you host yourself. It is built for teams that want Claude doing long tasks without building their own agent loop or sandbox.
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. “356th cheapest of 367” means 355 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 | OpenAI Containers: price rank | Claude Managed Agents: 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 needs root, Docker and a repo that stays; OpenAI containers run without sudo and expire after 20 idle minutes, and Managed Agents caps the box at 8 GB with Docker in limited availability, while boat gives a full VM. | 356th of 367, with limits $17,371 a month | 106th of 367, with limits $964 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Managed Agents fits a long-lived assistant better than OpenAI, since idle sessions sleep and wake on the next message, but its files last only 30 days after the sandbox is created; a boat disk stays as long as you keep it. | 341st of 366, with limits $13,140 a month | 219th of 366, with limits $2,511 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 This is what OpenAI Containers are built for: the model writes Python and runs it in the same API call, while Managed Agents wraps the same job in a full agent session. | 194th of 345, with limits $6,000 a month | 163rd of 345, with limits $756 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 Neither OpenAI Containers nor Managed Agents lets your users open what their sandbox is running, since both have no inbound ports; boat gives each sandbox HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports. | 361st of 361, with limits $3,780 a month | 231st of 361, with limits $823 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 | 191st of 360, with limits $30,000 a month | 252nd of 360, with limits $3,978 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 | 360th of 364, with limits $5,760 a month | 244th of 364, with limits $320 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 jobs need Docker and open internet; OpenAI documents no Docker and starts Code Interpreter with no internet, Managed Agents has Docker only in limited availability, and boat has both plus /dev/kvm. | 345th of 377, with limits $1,728 a month | 227th of 377, with limits $96 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A dev box needs SSH and a disk that lasts; neither OpenAI Containers nor Managed Agents has SSH, and boat is a VM you SSH into and keep all month. | 362nd of 368, with limits $1,051 a month | 224th of 368, with limits $48 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 OpenAI has a hosted browser for the Agents API computer_use tool, Managed Agents has headless Chromium with no computer-use tool, and boat streams a full desktop at 60fps. | 351st of 369, with limits $5,280 a month | 127th of 369, with limits $288 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 Managed Agents scripts headless Chromium with Playwright and OpenAI's hosted browser is driven by its Codex harness; boat shows the browser on a live desktop you can watch or take over. | 328th of 367, with limits $1,440 a month | 126th of 367, with limits $288 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 | 328th of 346, with limits $1,755 a month | 127th of 346, with limits $390 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 | 311th of 338, with limits $35,100 a month | 155th of 338, with limits $4,798 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 | 308th of 360, with limits $870 a month | 179th of 360, with limits $160 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 | OpenAI Containers | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A sandbox tool the model uses inside OpenAI's API | A hosted Claude agent: Anthropic's harness runs Claude in a sandbox and you send it events | A cloud VM you create, keep, stop and reach from outside, with coding agents built in |
| Isolation | A fully sandboxed virtual machine; hypervisor not named | Isolated Linux container per session | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Machine size | 1, 4, 16 or 64 GB of memory; vCPU not published | Up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk; vCPU not published; not configurable | 4 vCPU / 8 GB by default, up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB |
| Root, Docker and /dev/kvm | Commands do not run with sudo; no Docker or /dev/kvm documented | Docker listed as limited availability; root, systemd and /dev/kvm not documented | Root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Files after the session | Discarded when the container expires; cannot be recovered | Checkpointed when a session goes idle; kept only 30 days after the sandbox is created | Disk saved every minute and on stop, for as long as you keep the sandbox |
| Idle time | Expires after 20 minutes without use; Agents API sandboxes after an hour | An idle session sleeps unbilled and resumes on the next message | No session cap on paid plans; a stopped sandbox costs nothing and is started again by API |
| Fork | No fork | No fork or clone of a session or sandbox | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Inbound access | None; reached only through the API | No inbound ports or SSH; reached only through the sessions and events API | SSH, HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, raw TCP |
| Outbound internet | Code Interpreter and Hosted Shell: off until an admin sets an org allowlist; Agents API sandboxes: on, can be limited to 1 to 100 hosts | Unrestricted, or limited to listed hosts plus optional package registries and MCP servers | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | domain_secrets: a sidecar adds the real header for approved domains | Vault secrets live in the sandbox as placeholders and are swapped in at egress | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Agent harness | Agents API (beta) drives a managed Codex harness, with steering, events and webhooks | Anthropic's harness with Claude models, steering, multiagent threads, memory stores and webhooks | Claude Code, Codex and five more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Browser and desktop | Hosted browser for the Agents API computer_use tool | Headless Chromium with Playwright; no desktop or computer-use tool | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and an embeddable stream |
| Your own compute | The Agents API can drive a sandbox you host | Self-hosted sandboxes run tools on your own workers | No |
| Regions | US or EU processing for Code Interpreter; Agents API US only | US workspace geo only | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | OpenAI Containers | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Docker inside | No | Not published | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | No | Not published | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No | Yes |
| SSH | No | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | No | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | 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 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | No | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for either: neither OpenAI Containers nor Claude Managed Agents was in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, and neither publishes how many vCPUs its boxes get. boat did 26.69 runs per second on the Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. OpenAI Containers and Claude Managed Agents have 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 | OpenAI Containers, a month | Claude Managed Agents, 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 | $228 · API pay as you go · with limits | $13 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $1,051 · API pay as you go · with limits | $53 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $11,405 · API pay as you go · with limits | $634 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $1,620 · API pay as you go · with limits | $360 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $6,000 · API pay as you go · with limits | $796 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
OpenAI Containers: OpenAI bills each container session by the minute for the memory size you pick, with a 5-minute minimum, and model tokens come on top. There is no plan fee.
Claude Managed Agents: Managed Agents bills model tokens at API rates plus a session runtime fee that accrues only while the session is running, including time spent waiting on the model. Idle time is not billed, and tokens usually cost more than the runtime.
Claude Managed Agents: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Neither OpenAI Containers nor Claude Managed Agents fits any of the five scenarios as written. OpenAI containers have no persistent disk or Docker, Code Interpreter starts with no internet, and a container expires after 20 idle minutes; a Managed Agents sandbox tops out at 8 GB of memory and 10 GB of disk, with Docker only in limited availability. Neither publishes how many sandboxes can run at once, so 300 user sandboxes or 1,000 jobs at once are unconfirmed on both. On boat the burst is limited by starts per minute, so the $2,000 plan queues those starts.
| Scenario | OpenAI Containers | Claude Managed Agents | 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 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. If your app already calls OpenAI models, one tool line in a request gives the model a place to run code.
- Bigger memory sizes. For data jobs that need lots of memory, containers come in 16 GB or 64 GB, while a Managed Agents sandbox stops at 8 GB.
- Processing in Europe. Code Interpreter can process data in the US or Europe, while a Managed Agents workspace runs only in the US.
Use Claude Managed Agents when
you want Claude itself to do long tasks with no harness to build, idle time that costs no runtime, and files that last between messages.
- No agent loop to build. Teams that want Claude doing long tasks get the harness, caching, compaction, memory and webhooks ready to use.
- Sleeps and wakes with its files. An idle session costs no runtime and resumes on the next message with its files, where an OpenAI container is deleted after 20 idle minutes.
- Internet on by default. Agents that install packages or call APIs can reach the internet from the start, with an optional list of allowed hosts.
Where boat fits
Both of these are tools built around one company's models, and both give the agent a box you cannot reach from outside. If your agent needs a real machine it keeps for weeks, with Docker, open ports and the choice of Claude Code, Codex or another agent, look at boat instead.
A whole machine with root
OpenAI runs commands without sudo and documents no Docker, and Managed Agents has Docker only in limited availability inside an 8 GB container. Both let you host your own sandbox instead, but then you run the machines yourself.
A disk that stays
An OpenAI container throws away its files after 20 idle minutes, and a Managed Agents sandbox loses its state 30 days after it is created. Either way the agent clones, installs and builds again from scratch.
Open what the agent builds
Neither has inbound ports or SSH, so a web app the agent starts cannot be opened by you or your users. You would have to copy the code somewhere else to try it; boat gives HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports.
Use boat when your agent needs a real machine it keeps: root, Docker, a disk that persists, ports you can open, a 60fps desktop, and any coding agent driven from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs OpenAI Containers and boat vs Claude Managed Agents.
Questions people ask
Is OpenAI Containers cheaper than Claude Managed Agents?
For runtime in the scenarios on this page, Managed Agents costs less in all five: one agent on workdays comes to $13 a month against $228 on OpenAI, and one agent running all month to $53 against $1,051. Both bill model tokens on top, and neither fully fits these scenarios.
Which is faster, OpenAI Containers or Claude Managed Agents?
Neither has a public CPU benchmark, and neither publishes how many vCPUs its boxes get. boat did 26.69 runs per second on the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can OpenAI Containers or Claude Managed Agents run Docker?
OpenAI's docs say hosted shell commands do not run with sudo, and no Docker support is documented. Managed Agents lists Docker as limited availability. boat gives root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every sandbox.
How long do files last on each?
An OpenAI container expires after 20 minutes without use, and its data cannot be recovered. A Managed Agents sandbox is checkpointed when idle, but its state is kept only 30 days after it is created. boat keeps the disk, saved every minute, until you delete the sandbox.
Can I open a web app my agent built on either?
No. Neither has inbound ports, URLs or SSH; both are reached only through their APIs. boat gives each sandbox HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
Can I use Claude Code or Codex on boat?
Yes. Claude Code, Codex and five other agents come preinstalled in every boat sandbox, and the credentials proxy keeps your real OpenAI or Anthropic key outside the sandbox.
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