AI code-execution sandbox

AWS Fargate

AWS Fargate is serverless container compute for ECS and EKS that runs each task in a Firecracker microVM, a general-purpose primitive teams use to isolate untrusted or agent-generated code, priced at $0.04048 per vCPU-hour and $0.004445 per GB-hour (Linux/x86, US East).

Last verified 2026-08-10

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Fargate is not marketed as an agent sandbox, but it is the same Firecracker microVM technology that purpose-built sandboxes (E2B, CodeSandbox) sit on, exposed directly as serverless containers. Teams already on AWS use it to run untrusted or model-generated code with hardware-level isolation and no servers to manage. It bills per second (1-minute minimum) on independently configurable vCPU and memory, ships 20 GB of ephemeral storage per task by default (EFS for persistence), and is cheaper on ARM/Graviton ($0.03238/vCPU-hour) or Fargate Spot (up to about 70% off). The trade-offs versus a purpose-built sandbox: task startup is measured in tens of seconds rather than sub-second, there is no GPU support, and there is no agent SDK or MCP endpoint, so more assembly is required. AWS's purpose-built alternative for agent code execution is Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter.

Key specs

Isolation	Firecracker microVM
Price / vCPU-hr	$0.04048
Pricing model	Per-second (vCPU + GB), 1-min minimum
GPU	No
Session limit	Long-running tasks
Persistence	20 GB ephemeral storage default (configurable); EFS for persistence
Languages	any
MCP support	n/a
Integrations	AWS SDK, ECS/EKS API
Deployment	Managed cloud (AWS regions)
Free tier	No free tier
vCPU rate (Linux/x86)	$0.04048/vCPU-hr
ARM rate	$0.03238/vCPU-hr
Ephemeral storage	20 GB default
Isolation	Firecracker microVM

Strengths

Firecracker microVM isolation
Per-second billing, 1-minute minimum
Cheaper on ARM/Graviton ($0.03238/vCPU-hr) and Spot (up to ~70% off)
Integrates with existing AWS/ECS/EKS

Trade-offs

Not purpose-built for agents (no agent SDK, no MCP)
Task startup in tens of seconds, not sub-second
No GPU support
AWS-only, more assembly than a managed sandbox

Best for: Teams already on AWS/ECS/EKS wanting Firecracker-isolated container compute for longer-running or untrusted workloads.

Alternatives to AWS Fargate

E2B (AI code-execution sandbox)Daytona (AI code-execution sandbox)Modal (AI code-execution sandbox)Vercel Sandbox (AI code-execution sandbox)

See the full AWS Fargate alternatives comparison →

Sources: AWS Fargate pricing ↗ · Firecracker: lightweight virtualization (powers Fargate) ↗

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