OpenAI Containers (Code Interpreter / Hosted Shell)
OpenAI's hosted containers give models in the Responses API a sandboxed VM for Python and shell, in 1, 4, 16 or 64 GB sizes, created automatically or through the Containers API. For agents built on OpenAI models.
- vCPU
- not published
- Memory
- not published
- 2 vCPU + 4 GiB
- no comparable rate
- Isolation
- VM
- Pause / resume
- No
- Max session
- Expires after 20 minutes without use
Visit OpenAI Containers (Code Interpreter / Hosted Shell) Compare side by side Request a quote Checked
Cheapest providers with comparable rates
All providers against E2B| Provider | 2 vCPU + 4 GiB$/hr | vs E2B | Relative cost | Isolation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud Agent Sandbox | $0.055 (source: Alibaba Cloud Agent Sandbox billing overview) | 0.33x | VM | |
| Northflank Sandboxes | $0.067 (source: Northflank Pricing) | 0.40x | Cloud Hypervisor microVM | |
| Prime Intellect Sandboxes | $0.090 (source: Prime Intellect Sandboxes docs) | 0.54x | microVM | |
| Freestyle | $0.132 (source: Freestyle Pricing) | 0.80x | VM | |
| Beam | $0.140 (source: Beam Pricing) | 0.85x | — |
Every field
Source on each value- Isolation Isolation technology the vendor states for each sandbox.
- VM (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Other isolation options Alternative runtimes the vendor offers besides the default (e.g. VM runtime, gVisor for GPU).
- Not published
- Deployment Managed cloud service, self-hosted software, or both.
- managed (source: OpenAI API Pricing)
- Billing basis What the meter counts: wall-clock allocated resources, active CPU only, requests/plan quota, session-hours, or free software.
- wall clock (source: OpenAI API Pricing)
- vCPU price $/vCPU-hr Published on-demand CPU rate normalised to USD per vCPU-hour (per-second rates multiplied by 3,600; per-core rates divided by vCPUs per core where the vendor defines it). Lowest public tier, default region.
- Not published
- Memory price $/GiB-hr Published memory rate normalised to USD per GiB-hour (GB treated as GiB where the vendor does not distinguish). 0 means the vendor states memory is free.
- Not published
- Sandbox from $/sandbox-hr Smallest published per-sandbox hourly price, where the vendor publishes one.
- $0.09 (source: OpenAI API Pricing)
- Paid plan from $/mo Cheapest paid platform plan fee (before usage).
- Not published
- Free tier A free plan, free monthly allowance or sign-up credit exists.
- Not published
- Free tier detail What the free tier or credit includes, as published.
- Not published
- Cold start ms Vendor-published create/boot time in milliseconds. Only filled when the vendor publishes a number; see startup_claim for context (percentile, conditions).
- Not published
- Resume time ms Vendor-published resume-from-pause/standby/snapshot time in milliseconds.
- Not published
- Startup claim The vendor's startup/resume wording with conditions, quoted or closely paraphrased.
- Not published
- Max session length Longest single sandbox session by plan, as published.
- Expires after 20 minutes without use (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Persistence / snapshots Filesystem state can be kept between runs (snapshots, persistent disks, volumes).
- No (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Pause / resume A sandbox can be paused, suspended, hibernated or put in standby and resumed later.
- No (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Memory state kept Pause/hibernate preserves running memory state, not only the filesystem.
- Not published
- Fork / branch A running or snapshotted sandbox can be cloned into new sandboxes.
- Not published
- GPU GPU sandboxes are offered.
- Not published
- Self-host Can run on your own hardware or cluster (open source or licensed).
- Not published
- BYOC / VPC Vendor-managed deployment inside your own cloud account.
- Not published
- Open source Core sandbox runtime is published under an open-source licence.
- Not published
- Licence Open-source licence of the runtime, if any.
- Not published
- SDKs / languages Official SDK languages (or supported execution languages where noted).
- OpenAI API (Responses + Containers API); runs Python (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Regions Published regions or region count.
- Not published
- Max vCPU per sandbox vCPU Largest published vCPU count per sandbox on any self-serve or enterprise plan.
- Not published
- Max memory per sandbox GiB Largest published memory per sandbox.
- 64 (source: OpenAI Code Interpreter guide)
- Concurrency Published concurrent sandbox limits by plan.
- Not published
- SOC 2 SOC 2 status as stated by the vendor.
- Not published
- HIPAA Vendor offers HIPAA-compliant usage/BAA (on any plan).
- Not published
- Pricing from
- $0.09 per container-hour (1 GB)
- Pricing as published
- $0.03 (1 GB), $0.12 (4 GB), $0.48 (16 GB), $1.92 (64 GB) per 20-minute session per container, so $0.09/h for 1 GB; eligible sessions bill by the minute with a 5-minute minimum. Model tokens billed separately. Pricing checked 2026-11-09.
Sources
- OpenAI API Pricing accessed 2026-11-09
- OpenAI Code Interpreter guide accessed 2026-11-09
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