boat
Persistent Ubuntu VMs for AI agents in EU data centres, with SSH, Docker, disk snapshots, forking, a 60 fps virtual desktop and per-second billing from a $20/month plan. A low-priced EU-hosted full VM for agents that need persistence and a desktop, less suited to high-burst, compliance-gated or US-resident workloads.
Overview
boat sells full Ubuntu virtual machines ("sandboxes") for AI agents, from a Y Combinator-backed company that previously marketed the same product as "box by ASCII" (box.ascii.dev and docs.ascii.dev now redirect to boat.dev, and the SDK docs carry a migration guide from the legacy box SDKs). Each sandbox is its own VM with its own kernel, disk and IP; the hypervisor is not named. You reach it over SSH/SCP, the boat CLI, an HTTP API or Python and TypeScript SDKs, and Docker, VS Code, Chrome, Node, Rust, Bun and coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode are preinstalled. boat desktop streams a 60 fps virtual desktop rendered on the CPU.
Disk is snapshotted every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox keeps its disk for at least 14 days and can be resumed or forked, but memory and processes are not preserved. Billing is per second with a $20/month minimum plan that includes 555 hours of the default 4 vCPU/8 GB size, and the company publishes its own price comparison against other providers (a vendor claim). Machines are in Germany, Finland and France only; SOC 2 is in progress rather than certified. Starts per minute, hour and day are rate-limited by plan, which matters for burst-heavy workloads.
Notable
- Backed by Y Combinator (Fall 2026 batch); the YC profile lists the company as founded in 2024
- Rebranded from "box by ASCII": box.ascii.dev and docs.ascii.dev 301-redirect to boat.dev, and the status page remains at status.ascii.dev
- List price of $0.036/hour for a 4 vCPU/8 GB VM, which boat claims is the lowest per-VM-hour price among the providers it checked
boat specifications
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Isolation | Full virtual machine per sandbox with its own kernel, disk and IP address; hypervisor not named |
| Deployment | Hosted platform |
| Open source | No |
| SDKs and interfaces | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API |
| Cold start (vendor claim) | Not documented |
| Max session length | No fixed cap on paid plans: auto-stop defaults to 1 hour after start or resume, can be set up to 30 days or turned off; free trial is limited to 2 hours of auto-stop |
| Persistence | Disk is snapshotted every minute while running and on every stop; stopping pauses billing and keeps the disk for at least 14 days; boat fork clones a sandbox from a snapshot; memory and running processes are not saved |
| GPU | No - "No size includes a GPU"; the virtual desktop renders on the CPU |
| Networking | Outbound open by default (public IPv6 plus outbound IPv4, some sandboxes IPv6-only); inbound refused except SSH and boat ports, ports exposed via host <port> public URLs or ufw; no API-level network rules, and the default user has passwordless sudo so in-sandbox firewall rules can be removed by the agent; egress is not billed |
| Pricing | Per second while running: small 2 vCPU/4 GB $0.018/h, default 4 vCPU/8 GB $0.036/h, large 8 vCPU/16 GB $0.072/h, xlarge 16 vCPU/32 GB $0.200/h ($100 plan or higher). Monthly plans of $20 (100 concurrent sandboxes, 555 h of default VM time), $100 (300, 2,777 h), $500 (1,000, 13,888 h) and $2,000 (2,000, 55,555 h); included time does not roll over. Saved snapshots beyond the plan allowance $0.056/day each; extra starts $0.03-$0.07 each |
| Free tier | 7-day free trial (card required) with 25 compute hours, 2 concurrent sandboxes and auto-stop capped at 2 hours; no $0 plan |
| Compliance | SOC 2 listed as "in progress", not yet certified; zero-data-retention option; measured uptime 99.95% |
| Regions | Germany, Finland and France only (no US or Asia regions); snapshot copies may be stored outside the EU |
Facts from boat’s public documentation, verified November 9, 2026. Performance numbers are vendor claims.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- You want a persistent full VM with SSH, Docker and root that an agent can keep for days or weeks
- You need EU-only compute (Germany, Finland, France) for sandbox workloads
- You want predictable per-second VM pricing with a low monthly minimum and no egress charges
- You want a streamed virtual desktop without paying for a GPU
Trade-offs
- No US or Asian regions, and snapshot copies may be stored outside the EU
- SOC 2 is "in progress", not certified
- No GPUs on any size
- Network policy cannot be set through the API, and the default user has passwordless sudo, so in-VM firewall rules can be removed by the agent
- Sandbox starts are rate-limited per minute, hour and day by plan, with no queueing
Good fit for: Long-lived EU-hosted VMs that an agent keeps for days, with SSH, Docker and a desktop.
Use cases boat fits
- Coding agents: Persistent Ubuntu VMs in EU data centres with SSH, Docker, a desktop, disk snapshots and forking; Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode come preinstalled.
How boat compares
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| boat | Full VM, own kernel | No | No / No | Not documented | No cap (auto-stop 1 h default) | Yes / Yes | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API |
| exe.dev | VM (VMM per VM) | No | No / Yes | ~1 s (claim) | No cap | Yes / Not documented | Not documented | CLI (over SSH), HTTPS API, MCP server |
| Upstash Box | Docker container | No | No / No | Not documented | No cap (idle pause 1 h / 6 h) | Yes / Yes | No | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, CLI, MCP server |
| Fly.io Sprites | MicroVM | No | No / No | 0.1–2 s wake | Unlimited | Yes / Yes | No | JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Python, Elixir |
| Tensorlake Sandboxes | MicroVM (gVisor for GPU) | Yes | Yes / Yes | ~100s of ms (claim) | 2 h / 24 h / unlimited (Pro) | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, CLI, REST API |
| E2B | Firecracker microVM | Yes | Yes / Yes | Not documented | 1 h / 24 h (Pro) | Yes / Yes | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript |
Frequently asked questions
What is boat?
How does boat isolate code?
Is boat open source?
How much does boat cost?
What are the alternatives to boat?
Sources
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). boat. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/sandboxes/boat/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.