Daytona suits teams building agents that execute generated code and want one vendor for CPU, Windows and GPU sandboxes. The catch is governance: core development went private in June 2026 and the public repository was archived in October. Verdict: use the hosted service, and do not plan around self-hosting.
Daytona is a hosted sandbox platform that gives AI agents isolated cloud computers, each with its own kernel, filesystem and network stack. The company says sandboxes start in under 90 milliseconds. It runs in two shared regions, United States and Europe, lists eight GPU models, and publishes SOC 2 Type I and HIPAA documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Daytona cost in 2026?
Billing is per second. Compute is $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and memory is $0.0162 per GiB-hour, while storage is $0.000108 per GiB-hour after the first 5 GiB, and Windows adds $0.0858 per vCPU-hour. By that arithmetic a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB Linux sandbox costs about $0.1656 per hour of running time. GPUs run from $0.57 per hour (RTX 4090, preemptible) to $6.25 (B300 or B200, on-demand).
Does Daytona have a free plan?
There is no permanent free plan. A new account gets $200 in free compute with no credit card required, and email verification places it in Tier 1 limits. Startups can apply for up to $50k in credits through the startup program.
Which tools compete with Daytona in 2026?
E2B is the closest like-for-like sandbox service on HokAI, so start there if code execution for agents is the whole job. Modal fits teams that run Python functions and models on serverless GPUs instead of long-lived sandboxes. A Hetzner server suits teams that would rather rent a machine at a flat rate and build isolation themselves.
What separates Daytona from E2B?
Both meter compute by the second at close to the same vCPU rate. Per HokAI's E2B record, its Pro plan adds a monthly base fee, while Daytona's self-serve page lists usage rates only. E2B's core is Apache 2.0 and still public, whereas Daytona's repository is archived. Daytona is the one to choose when GPU and Windows sandboxes must sit in the same account.
How do you get started with Daytona?
Create an account at app.daytona.io, verify your email and copy an API key from the dashboard. Install the Python SDK or the TypeScript package @daytona/sdk, create a client with the key, call create() and then run code in the new sandbox. The vendor's own example does this in a few lines, and the $200 credit covers early experiments.
Top Alternatives
- E2B: Pick E2B if you want a core you can still self-host; pick Daytona if you want GPU and Windows sandboxes in one account.
- Modal: Pick Modal for serverless GPU jobs written as Python code; pick Daytona for sandboxes an agent creates and deletes.
- Hetzner: Pick Hetzner for a flat-priced server you manage yourself; pick Daytona when machines must appear and vanish by API.