Sandbox guide

Provider · checked 2026-10-28

InstaBox

Firecracker machines with a browser desktop, sold as a subscription that is also a monthly credit.

instabox.sh12 providersSources linked

InstaBox sells full Linux virtual machines, one per AI agent, that boot in about a second, keep their disk between sessions, and can be paused with memory and running processes intact.

Each machine is a Firecracker microVM running Debian 13 with its own kernel, root, systemd and Docker. You drive it from a web dashboard, a CLI, a TypeScript SDK or plain HTTP, and you can watch or take over its graphical desktop.

The intended buyer is a team running coding or computer-use agents that needs a real machine per task, not a single shared dev box. InstaBox is not InstaCloud, InsForge's separate managed-backend product.

At a glance

Who it is forTeams and individuals running agents that need a persistent, general-purpose Linux box with a browser and desktop, who are comfortable with a CLI or API.
IsolationFirecracker microVM with its own kernel, root and passwordless sudo. Docker works. Templates are versioned images; you cannot bring your own OCI image.
SizesFixed vCPU/RAM pairs by plan: Free is 4/8 only; Pro adds 2/4 and 8/16; Builder goes to 16/32; Team to 32/64. One disk at /data, 20 GiB by default, growable live to 200 GiB on Pro.

How it bills

ModelMonthly subscription that is also a credit: $20, $100 or $500, reset monthly.
MeterPer second while running, on the size you asked for: $0.004 per vCPU-hour, $0.00225 per GiB-hour, $0.00011 per GiB-hour of storage, $0.02 per GiB of egress.
While stoppedStorage only. Paused and stopped machines pay GiB-hours for their disk and snapshots; paused memory is not billed and does not count as stored data.
Plan feeThe plan fee is the credit. Usage comes out of it first, then pay-as-you-go, and unused credit expires at month end.
Minimum$20 a month on Pro, or the free plan: one 4/8 machine, five snapshots, 100 GiB of egress a month.

How InstaBox lets you try before paying is on Trials and free tiers.

Where it stands out

  • A dashboard that creates a machine and opens a clickable Linux desktop.
  • Pause that keeps memory and running programs, billing storage only.
  • Org Secrets in proxy mode: the machine holds a placeholder, not the key.
  • Cheap per-hour rates: $0.004 per vCPU-hour and $0.00225 per GiB-hour.
  • Computer-use MCP and human takeover of the desktop, with control handed back.

Using it without writing code

DashboardYes, a full console: create a machine from a template with a button, start/stop/pause, open the Computer tab to click the Linux desktop, publish ports, save snapshots from the Playground, read metrics and billing.
Without codePartly. Creating a machine, opening its desktop, using Chromium, publishing a port and saving a snapshot are all click-driven. Claude Code and Codex are preinstalled, so you can type a plain-English request into the box's terminal. There is no hosted agent product and no prompt-in, result-out API.
SignupGitHub or Google. Whether a brand-new free account needs a card is not published: the pricing page says $0, while the API has a cardMissingAt state that blocks free machines. Paid plans subscribe by card in the dashboard.
Docs and support26 pages, each available as Markdown, plus an llms-full.txt bundle; every page states limits and failure modes. Support is email on paid plans, priority on Team, and there is a Discord. No public status page was found.

Caveats and contradictions

Shown as the research found them. A contradiction means the provider's own pages disagree; an open question means the answer is not published.

  1. 01

    The homepage says a fork copies running processes; the docs say otherwise Contradiction

    Marketing says fork a machine mid-run and copy a running machine in seconds, listing Running Processes. The docs say fork is snapshot save plus create, and a snapshot does not hold memory or running processes.

  2. 02

    The free plan's 8-hour continuous runtime cap is only in the API schema Open question

    MaxRunMinutes defaults to 480 for free machines. No docs page mentions it, so a reader of the pricing page would not know.

  3. 03

    Docs and API disagree on whether a preview visit wakes a paused machine Contradiction

    The ports page says a visit wakes an idle-paused machine; the OpenAPI says preview links remain offline until resumed.

  4. 04

    Whether the free plan needs a card Open question

    The pricing page says $0 and Get started; the API has a card-missing state that makes free sandboxes answer 402. It may apply only to workspaces that once had a paid plan.

  5. 05

    Snapshots carry credentials Open question

    Home is /data/home, so saved GitHub, Claude, Codex, git and SSH logins travel into every machine built from a snapshot.

  6. 06

    No published regions and no status page Open question

    The Terms say the United States; there is no region selector. status.instabox.sh does not resolve.

Sources

The three shared workloads

List-price illustrations, not quotes

A · 1,000 short tasks

$3.20 of usage, billed at $20 on Pro

2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB disk, deleted after each task (Pro or above)

  • vCPU2 × $0.004 × 166.67 h$1.33
  • Memory4 × $0.00225 × 166.67 h$1.50
  • Storage20 × $0.00011 × 166.67 h$0.37
  • The $20 plan is also $20 of credit, so the bill is the plan price.
  • On Free the 2/4 size does not exist; the nearest 4/8 would be $5.67 of usage, billed at $0.

The free plan is 4 vCPU / 8 GiB only, so this workload cannot run there as specified.

B · One always-on box

$28.84 a month

4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 50 GiB, 730 h

  • vCPU4 × $0.004 × 730$11.68
  • Memory8 × $0.00225 × 730$13.14
  • Storage50 × $0.00011 × 730$4.02
  • The vendor's calculator shows $24.82 because it leaves storage out of the total.
  • Always-on needs the idle pause turned off, which paid plans allow.

C · Three hours a day

$3.14 of usage, billed at $20 on Pro

2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB, 90 running hours

  • vCPU2 × $0.004 × 90$0.72
  • Memory4 × $0.00225 × 90$0.81
  • Storage, all month20 × $0.00011 × 730$1.61
  • On Free the nearest size would be $4.67 of usage, billed at $0.
  • A free machine pauses itself after 30 idle minutes and cannot run more than 8 hours continuously.