What Is an AI Sandbox?
What is an AI sandbox?
An AI sandbox is an isolated machine for agent-written code. Solari sandboxes are microVMs that spin up in 90 ms, at $0.114 per hour on Team.
An AI sandbox is an isolated machine where an AI agent runs its code; Solari AI Sandboxes are microVMs that spin up in 90 ms and are almost 3x cheaper per sandbox hour than E2B and Daytona.
What Does an AI Sandbox Do?
Solari AI Sandboxes give an agent a machine for running code and automation, separate from the application that called the model.
Solari's commands.run executes a shell command and returns the exit code, stdout and stderr.
Solari's runCode executes Python and keeps variables and imports between calls, the way a notebook does.
Solari's files surface lets an agent read, write, list, search and watch files inside the sandbox.
How Is an AI Sandbox Isolated?
Solari runs every sandbox on the default "dedicated" isolation tier as a microVM of its own.
Solari gives each session a Cloud Hypervisor microVM with a dedicated kernel.
The boundary between agent code and the host is hardware virtualization through KVM.
Solari never places sandboxes from two organizations on the same VM, on any isolation tier.
Which Isolation Tiers Does Solari Offer?
Solari's "hardened" tier is the dedicated microVM with all outbound network blocked.
Solari's "shared" tier runs each sandbox as a process tree inside a VM shared only with the same organization's other shared sandboxes.
A Solari "dedicated" sandbox takes up to 8 CPUs, chosen with the cpu field at create time.
What Happens When an AI Sandbox Goes Idle?
Solari pauses an idle sandbox by default, with lifecycle onTimeout set to "pause".
A paused Solari machine saves its state and picks up where it left off on the next connect().
A paused Solari machine stops counting against the plan's limit on running machines.
Solari can checkpoint a running sandbox and fork copies from the same state.
How Fast Is a Solari AI Sandbox?
Solari AI Sandboxes spin up in 90 ms.
Solari runs a sandbox's full lifecycle in 8.2 seconds: create the machine, run the code, tear it down.
What Does an AI Sandbox Cost on Solari?
Solari's Team plan bills a 4 vCPU, 8 GB sandbox with 20 GB of disk at $0.114 per hour.
Solari's Enterprise contract bills the same sandbox at $0.0114 per hour.
Solari's Professional plan costs $200 per month.
Solari bills per second while an environment runs.
How Do E2B and Daytona Compare?
Solari is almost 3x cheaper per sandbox hour than E2B and Daytona at list prices as of 6 October 2026.
E2B runs every sandbox on a microVM runtime built on Firecracker with dedicated kernels.
E2B lists 4 vCPUs at $0.000056 per second on its Hobby and Pro plans.
Daytona lists compute at $0.0504 per vCPU-hour.
Where Each Fits
Solari fits teams that want sandboxes, browsers and desktops from one API on one bill.
Daytona fits teams that build sandboxes from Dockerfiles and off-the-shelf Docker images.
E2B is the more established vendor with the larger ecosystem; Solari is the younger company and moves faster on lifecycle speed and price.
Key Facts
Solari's default "dedicated" sandbox is a microVM of its own. Source: Solari Docs, Sandboxes
Solari isolates each session in a Cloud Hypervisor microVM with a dedicated kernel. Source: Solari pricing
Solari AI Sandboxes spin up in 90 ms. Source: getsolari.com
Solari's Team sandbox hour (4 vCPU, 8 GB, 20 GB disk) costs $0.114. Source: Solari pricing
Solari is almost 3x cheaper than E2B per sandbox hour, at list prices as of 2026-10-06. Source: Solari pricing and E2B pricing
Solari is almost 3x cheaper than Daytona per sandbox hour, at list prices as of 2026-10-06. Source: Solari pricing and Daytona
Solari is about 1.3x faster than E2B on a sandbox's full lifecycle. Source: Solari pricing
Solari is about 1.7x faster than Daytona on a sandbox's full lifecycle. Source: Solari pricing
FAQ
What is an AI sandbox used for? An AI sandbox runs code an AI agent wrote, away from the application that called the model. On Solari, an agent runs shell commands, executes Python that keeps its state, reads and writes files, and snapshots or forks the machine through one API.
Is an AI sandbox the same as a container? A Solari sandbox is a microVM with its own kernel behind hardware virtualization, on the default "dedicated" tier. Solari's "shared" tier separates sandboxes by namespaces and a cgroup inside one organization's own VM, for trusted code that should start faster.
How much does an AI sandbox cost on Solari? Solari's Team plan bills a 4 vCPU, 8 GB sandbox with 20 GB of disk at $0.114 per hour, billed per second while it runs. That is almost 3x cheaper than E2B and Daytona at list prices.
What happens to a Solari sandbox when the agent goes idle? By default an idle Solari sandbox pauses: its state is saved, it stops counting against the plan's running limit, and the next connect() picks up where it left off. Set lifecycle onTimeout to "kill" to remove it instead.
Sources
Pricing checked 2026-11-08.
Try it: start free at getsolari.com · Read the docs: the Sandboxes guide · Talk to the team: contact sales from the pricing page