boat
Cloud sandboxes for AI agents, formerly Box: persistent Ubuntu VMs with SSH, Docker, a desktop and forking.
boat, formerly Box, runs persistent Ubuntu virtual machines as sandboxes for AI agents, with SSH, Docker, a 60fps virtual desktop and fast forking from snapshots. After a 7-day free trial with 25 compute hours, plans start at $20 a month, paid back as VM time at $0.036 an hour for the default size.
About boat
A boat sandbox is a persistent Ubuntu virtual machine with SSH and SCP access, Docker support inside the VM, a 60fps virtual desktop and disk-level forking from a snapshot. Docker, VS Code, Chrome, Ghostty, the GitHub CLI, Rust, Node.js and Bun come pre-installed, and you can bring Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode; the boat prompt command runs Claude or Codex inside a sandbox.
The CLI installs on macOS, Linux and Windows and covers new, ssh, scp, prompt, fork, stop, desktop and list, while boat recommends the HTTP API and the Python and TypeScript SDKs for programmatic use. A stopped sandbox costs no machine time and keeps its disk for 14 days, after which boat deletes the data unless you have saved a saved snapshot.
Billing is per second while a sandbox runs: small (2 vCPU, 4 GB) costs $0.018 an hour, default (4 vCPU, 8 GB) $0.036, large (8 vCPU, 16 GB) $0.072 and xlarge (16 vCPU, 32 GB) $0.200, which needs the $100 plan or higher. Plans of $20, $100, $500 and $2000 a month come back as VM time and allow 100, 300, 1,000 and 2,000 sandboxes at once, and use beyond the plan is paid from a wallet.
Box became boat on September 15, 2026; boat says the product, the account, the machines and the data stay the same, a box is now called a sandbox, and old Box API paths, keys, CLI, SDK packages and hosted URLs still work.
Sources: boat.dev, docs.boat.dev/pricing and docs.boat.dev/migrating-from-box, read 2026-10-27
boat pros and cons
Pros
- boat has one price per size, per hour, so you know the price before you run anything.
- Egress is not billed, and automatic snapshots are included with no count limit.
- Starts inside your plan's start limits cost nothing, and you can burst up to 3x the limits, paying per extra start from the wallet.
- Every size is a full Linux virtual machine with the same tools, snapshots, hosting and desktop.
Cons
- Sandboxes run only in EU regions today: Germany, Finland and France.
- No size has a GPU.
- Saved snapshots past the included count cost $0.056 a day each, and you cannot save one during the free trial.
- A plan is a monthly price, and included VM time expires at the end of the billing period without carrying over.
Tagged
- Web-based
boat alternatives
The closest alternatives to boat.
Related reading
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</a>Frequently asked questions
- What is boat?
- boat — Cloud sandboxes for AI agents, formerly Box: persistent Ubuntu VMs with SSH, Docker, a desktop and forking.
- Is boat free?
- boat is a paid product. Pricing details are on the official site.
- What platforms does boat support?
- boat's own site lists it for CLI, macOS, Linux and Windows.
- What are the alternatives to boat?
- The closest alternatives to boat are TryCase, Epho, Bitrise Remote Dev Environments.
- What are the downsides of boat?
- Sandboxes run only in EU regions today: Germany, Finland and France. No size has a GPU. Saved snapshots past the included count cost $0.056 a day each, and you cannot save one during the free trial. A plan is a monthly price, and included VM time expires at the end of the billing period without carrying over.
- Is boat the same as Box?
- Yes: boat's migration guide says Box became boat on September 15, 2026, and that the product, the account, the machines and the data stay the same. A box is now called a sandbox, and old Box API paths, keys, CLI, SDK packages and hosted URLs still work.
- How much does boat cost?
- Plans start at $20 a month, and every dollar comes back as VM time: the $20 plan includes 555 hours of the default 4 vCPU, 8 GB size at $0.036 an hour. Larger plans cost $100, $500 and $2000 a month, and use past a plan is paid from your wallet.
- Is there a boat free trial?
- Yes: the 7-day free trial requires a card and gives 25 hours of compute, 2 sandboxes at once, a 2-hour auto-stop and no large sizes.
- Which coding agents run in a boat sandbox?
- The homepage says to bring any agent, such as Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode, and boat prompt runs Claude or Codex inside a sandbox. Sandboxes are full Ubuntu machines, so you can run any devtool, language or workflow.
- Where are boat sandboxes hosted?
- In EU regions today: Germany, Finland and France. Self-serve plans scale from 100 to 2,000 active sandboxes per account, with more by agreement.