# GitHub Copilot cloud sandboxes

Official pricing: https://docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/cloud-and-local-sandboxes  
Category: hyperscaler · Isolation: vm

## Pricing regimes (raw)

- **Cloud sandbox (copilot --cloud), per-second meters** (resource): $0.0864/vCPU-h, $0.0108/GiB-h [beta, alt]

## Features

Yes: snapshots, memory snapshots, pause/resume, persistent disk, whole disk survives a stop, ≥24 h sessions, custom image (Docker or snapshot), start from your own snapshot, full VM (own kernel), root, preinstalled agents, open internet, SOC 2, SSO, Python, Node.js, spend limits, automatic snapshots, gVisor or VM (no shared kernel), firewall inside (nftables), FUSE mounts, kernel features (eBPF, mounts, cgroups)

No: fork/clone, volumes, your own Docker/OCI image, systemd, browser, desktop GUI, computer-use API, code interpreter, browser + desktop control, anti-bot stealth, CAPTCHA solving, residential IPs, SSH, public IPv4, HTTPS preview URLs, custom domains, raw TCP inbound, static egress IP, self-hosting, BYOC, open source, GPU, Windows, macOS, GPU desktop, wake on request, live resize, live fork (no pause), memory fork, EU data residency, usage per sandbox (API), snapshots on demand, hosted agent API (their own agent), inbound access rules, secret proxy, secret proxy for any API, extra volumes, shared volumes

Unknown: everything else. Evidence (source + quote) per feature: https://battleships.dev/data/providers/github-copilot-cloud-sandboxes.json → feature_evidence

## Company

- Ownership: subsidiary (Microsoft Corporation)
- Stage: subsidiary [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub)
- Accelerators: none found
- Total raised: unknown
- Last round: acquisition, $7.5B, 2018-10, led by Microsoft (confirmed) [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub)
- Investors: Microsoft
- Revenue: $1B (confirmed: GitHub-wide ARR (not Copilot-specific), as disclosed by Microsoft; cited via Wikipedia/TechCrunch. Copilot-specific revenue is not separately broken out by Microsoft and the cloud-sandbox feature specifically has no standalone revenue figure.) [source](https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/25/microsoft-says-github-now-has-a-1b-arr-90m-active-users/) ARR, 2022-10

GitHub Copilot cloud sandboxes are not an independent company: they are a feature within GitHub Copilot, itself a product of GitHub, Inc., a wholly-owned Microsoft subsidiary since the 2018 acquisition (~$7.5B all-stock). There is no separate cap table, funding round, or standalone revenue figure for Copilot or for the cloud-sandboxes feature; the $1B ARR figure is for all of GitHub (2022), not Copilot or sandboxes alone. The underlying execution platform is Microsoft's Azure Container Apps Sandboxes. Cloud sandboxing entered public preview 2026-06-02 and is billed separately from Copilot AI credits.

## Caveats

- Public preview since 2026-06-02; the $10/month preview entitlement ran "through the end of July 2026"; after that "all usage is billed" (free.monthly_credit 0).
- "Per compute second" is read as per vCPU-second (matches the ACA vCPU meter exactly), but the official table (re-checked 2026-10-14) only says unit "Compute second" = "Time that a cloud sandbox session is running"; if it is per session rather than per vCPU, a 4-vCPU sandbox would cost 4x less on compute. Equal meters are not evidence of an ACA implementation. GitHub does not publish sandbox vCPU/RAM tiers, max session length, egress price, or regions.
- Storage $0.005/GiB-month applies to snapshots from the time a sandbox is stopped until it is deleted; this is 40x cheaper than the Premium Blob ZRS rate ACA Sandboxes will charge directly.
- Usable only through Copilot: interactive Copilot CLI sessions ('copilot --cloud --experimental'; cloud sandboxing is an experimental CLI feature, no -p/-i programmatic use) or the GitHub Copilot app (cloud sandbox execution location); also used by Copilot in Microsoft Teams. Org/enterprise owners must enable the 'Cloud Sandbox access' policy (disabled by default). Usage is blocked once quota is used if no payment method is on file.
- Sandbox meters are separate from Copilot AI credits: a cloud sandbox session also consumes the seat's AI credits for model calls, which this card does not price.
- Copilot Student is free and includes the cloud agent ("Free"; cloud agent "Included", https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans), but it is limited to verified students and the plans page does not say cloud sandboxes are available on it, so it is not listed as a plan here. Copilot Free does not include the cloud agent.
- No egress control is documented for cloud sandboxes: the Copilot firewall "only operates within the GitHub Actions appliance environment", and cloud sandboxes run on Azure Container Apps Sandboxes.

## How this provider charges


`copilot --cloud` launches an isolated, ephemeral Linux sandbox hosted by GitHub. GitHub's docs say cloud sandboxing
is "built on Azure Container Apps Sandboxes, with GitHub providing the identity, policy, and billing layer". Public
preview since 2026-06-02. Meters (https://docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/cloud-and-local-sandboxes):
**$0.000024 per compute second, $0.000003 per GiB-second of memory, $0.005 per GiB-month of storage** — the same
compute/memory meters as ACA Consumption/Sandboxes.

Reference 4 vCPU / 8 GiB (if such a tier exists): **$0.432/h**.

## Regime table

| Regime | When it applies | How billed | Numbers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Running cloud sandbox | Session running | Compute per second (read as per vCPU-second) + allocated memory per GiB-second | $0.0864/vCPU-h, $0.0108/GiB-h | GitHub billing docs |
| Stopped session | After stop (a snapshot of state is taken) | Compute and memory not metered; snapshot storage from stop until delete | $0.005/GiB-month | GitHub billing docs; about-cloud-and-local-sandboxes |
| Preview entitlement | Eligible accounts during public preview | $10/month included | ended "end of July 2026"; after that "all usage is billed" | GitHub billing docs |
| Local sandboxing | Sandbox on your own machine | Included in the Copilot seat | $0 | GitHub billing docs |
| Copilot seat | Required to use cloud sandboxes; org/enterprise must enable it (off by default) | Monthly seat | not re-verified here (fee null) | docs.github.com |
| Budgets | Product-level or SKU-level budget with "stop usage at 100%" | Hard stop | — | GitHub billing docs |
| No payment method | Quota used up | Usage blocked | — | GitHub billing docs |

## Gotchas

1. **Tiers, max session length, egress price and regions are not published** by GitHub; ACA Sandboxes tiers (XS-XL, 1 core : 2 GB) are assumed.
2. **Snapshot storage is very cheap ($0.005/GiB-month)** versus the Premium Blob ZRS rate ACA will charge direct customers ($0.20).
3. The $10/month preview credit is gone; every second is billed now.
4. Usable only through Copilot, not as a general sandbox API.

## Worked example

4 vCPU / 8 GiB, 50 concurrent x 8 h/day x 22 days = 8,800 sandbox-hours, stopped between shifts, 30% CPU
(no effect), 50 GiB snapshots, 100 GiB egress (price unpublished, assumed $0).

| Regime | Calculation | Total / month |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud sandbox usage | 8,800 x 0.432 = $3,801.60 + 50 x $0.005 = $0.25 | **$3,801.85** + Copilot seats |
| During preview (until end of July 2026) | $3,801.85 - $10 | $3,791.85 (expired) |