Context Agent Sandboxes

Overview

Context Agent Sandboxes gives each agent task a temporary, permission-bounded environment on the customer’s cluster. It suits organizations that need oversight of how agents reach files, credentials, and network destinations. Its strong access controls and audit trail make it a considered choice for supervised agent work, though concurrency is plan-limited and sandbox data does not persist.

Key features

Every task starts in a fresh sandbox, which is destroyed after its idle window—30 minutes by default. That clean slate can help keep one task’s environment separate from the next, but the lack of persistent storage rules it out for workflows that rely on durable sandbox files.

Sandboxes run as non-root container pods with capabilities dropped, a seccomp profile, and no cluster service-account token. Administrators can choose open, domain-allowlist, or workspace-only network access, and allowlist decisions are logged. Under the supervised preset, commands require human approval and connections outside the allowlist prompt for a decision. These options provide meaningful oversight, although the approval flow can slow work that needs to proceed without intervention.

Drive is not mounted in the sandbox. Instead, files pass through a permission-checking gateway, and outputs must be pushed explicitly. Standing secrets stay outside the sandbox; credentials are injected at the edge after authorization. An append-only log records commands, files, connections, and permission decisions, including the actor and decision maker. That record is useful for teams that need to review what an agent did and who approved it.

Context lists more than 180 integrations across data, documents, communication, CRM, ITSM, finance, and identity, as well as remote MCP servers. API or CLI access is available. Compute time is not metered on Context plans; Enterprise customers pay their cloud provider for compute, so cloud costs remain part of that deployment’s budget.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing and includes sandboxes, with one agent at a time. That is a useful starting point for individual evaluation, but the single-agent cap limits concurrent work.

Plus costs $20 a month, billed per person per month, and allows three agents at a time. Sandbox time is not metered. Its per-person billing makes the seat count relevant to the total bill, while its concurrency cap may constrain a team with several simultaneous tasks.

Pro costs $200 a month, billed per month. It supports ten agents at a time, includes 25,000 credits a month for model usage, and does not meter sandbox time. It fits teams needing more concurrent capacity and a defined monthly model-credit allocation; the credit allowance is a separate limit to consider alongside concurrency.

Enterprise has custom pricing, custom enterprise deployment, and runs in your own cloud. Enterprise sandboxes run on the customer’s Kubernetes cluster and can be installed through KOTS on EKS or AKS, including with an air-gapped bundle. Enterprise customers pay their cloud provider for compute. Basic support through Context’s standard business-hours channels is included in every agreement, while Enterprise support is set per order. Context states it holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and provides the reports on request.

Platforms

Context Agent Sandboxes supports Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosted deployments. The customer-cluster model and Enterprise Kubernetes options make it particularly relevant to organizations that want deployment in their own cloud.

Who it's for

This is best suited to organizations running agents against company resources where permissions, human approvals, and an attributable audit record matter. Free works for a single concurrent agent; Plus and Pro raise that ceiling to three and ten, respectively. Teams that need persistent sandbox storage, or more simultaneous capacity than their plan allows, should consider another option.

Pros and cons

• Strong isolation controls: Non-root pods, dropped capabilities, seccomp, and the absence of a service-account token limit sandbox privileges.
• Granular network and approval choices: Administrators can select network access modes, and supervised operation adds human review for commands and out-of-allowlist connections.
• Auditable handling of access: The append-only log captures commands, files, connections, and permission decisions with the actor and decision maker.
• No persistent storage: Fresh sandboxes are destroyed after their idle window, so files cannot be kept there for later tasks.
• Concurrency depends on plan: Free allows one agent at a time, Plus three, and Pro ten.
• Enterprise costs extend to cloud compute: Enterprise has custom pricing, and customers pay their cloud provider for sandbox compute.

Alternatives

ANY.RUN is worth considering for readers who want a freemium option with a free trial and listed Android, iOS, API, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows platforms; its Community plan is free forever and names Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit, Android 14 64-bit (ARM), and Ubuntu 22.04.2 64-bit.

Docker Desktop suits readers seeking a freemium choice whose free Personal plan includes Docker Desktop, Docker Engine and Kubernetes, Docker Hub, Docker Scout, and Docker Debug; its Pro plan costs $9 a month.

Northflank offers a free Sandbox plan with two services, one database, two cron jobs, and always-on compute for readers whose needs match those limits.

Anthropic Sandbox Runtime is a free option for readers considering a tool from Anthropic, which describes itself as an AI safety and research company building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

Daytona is another freemium option with a free trial; its Pay-as-you-go plan includes 5 GiB of storage before storage charges.

microsandbox may fit readers who want defined free resource limits: its free plan includes 5 vCPU-hours, 20 memory GiB-hours, 20 disk GiB-hours, and up to three sandboxes, each capped at 1 vCPU and 512 MiB memory.

E2B is an alternative for readers interested in a freemium runtime that E2B says is Apache-2.0 licensed and self-hostable; its Hobby plan includes a one-time $100 usage credit.

Zscaler Private Access is a paid option for readers comparing private-access software, with no free plan.

Browse more options in Sandbox Software.

Verdict

Choose Context Agent Sandboxes if your organization needs isolated agent tasks, configurable access, human approval, and an audit trail, especially when deploying on its own cloud. The strongest reason to look elsewhere is the absence of persistent storage; its plan-based concurrency and custom-priced Enterprise tier also deserve attention before scaling.