# Sealos DevBox

Official pricing: https://sealos.io/pricing/  
Category: dev-env · Isolation: container

## Pricing regimes (raw)

- **Monthly resource package (flat, shared by all DevBoxes/apps in the plan)** (pool)
- **New-user price on first paid plan (Starter $7, Hobby $25)** (pool) [promo]

## Features

Yes: snapshots, fork/clone, pause/resume, persistent disk, volumes, ≥24 h sessions, custom image (Docker or snapshot), start from your own snapshot, root, SSH, HTTPS preview URLs, custom domains, raw TCP inbound, self-hosting, Python, Node.js, Go, Rust, Java, spend limits, MCP server, automatic snapshots, snapshots on demand, agent harness API, inbound access rules

No: memory snapshots, idle auto-stop, your own Docker/OCI image, full VM (own kernel), Docker inside, nested virtualization, browser, desktop GUI, computer-use API, code interpreter, browser + desktop control, anti-bot stealth, CAPTCHA solving, preinstalled agents, public IPv4, egress allowlist, static egress IP, BYOC, open source, SSO, GPU, arm64, Windows, macOS, GPU desktop, HTTP method/path egress rules, wake on request, live fork (no pause), memory fork, EU data residency, hosted agent API (their own agent), gVisor or VM (no shared kernel), firewall inside (nftables), secret proxy, secret proxy for any API, extra volumes, shared volumes

Unknown: everything else. Evidence (source + quote) per feature: https://battleships.dev/data/providers/sealos-devbox.json → feature_evidence

## Caveats

- Not a metered sandbox: flat monthly resource packages with no overage. Traffic (10GB-10TB) and disk (10-1024Gi) caps are per tier; exceeding needs an upgrade. Engine egress/disk fields left null because allowances are tier-bound.
- Starter/Hobby give only 1 GiB RAM per vCPU; a 4 vCPU / 8 GiB DevBox needs Standard ($128) or larger.
- Whether an account can stack several packages (e.g. 4 x Team instead of Enterprise) is not documented.
- No pay-as-you-go option is published any more. The 'CPU $40 / RAM $20 / Volume $3 / Egress $2.50' figures that search engines attribute to Sealos are Railway's rates from Sealos's comparison calculator ($20/avg vCPU, $10/avg GB, $0.15/GB volume, $0.05/GB egress, verified 2026-08-21) and must not be used for Sealos.
- New-user price ($7 Starter, $25 Hobby) applies to the 'first paid plan purchase'; recurrence unclear. Modeled as a separate 'promo'-flagged pool mode.
- 7-day no-card free trial (4 vCPU, 4GB, 5GB storage, 500MB bandwidth, 100 AI credits); not represented as credit.
- Since the SSH Gateway (blog 2026-01-22) all DevBox SSH goes through one shared port 2233 and uses zero NodePorts, so sleeping DevBoxes no longer burn NodePort quota just for SSH. NodePorts (4/8/16/32 on Starter/Hobby/Standard/Pro) are only consumed by services you expose. Whether a normally shut-down DevBox still holds CPU/RAM against the package is still undocumented.
- Isolation is Kubernetes containers. Regions not published on sealos.io; separate China cloud (sealos.run, CNY) not researched.
- Self-hosted Sealos is source-available (Sealos Sustainable Use License), not OSI open source.
- No benchmark data.
- Plans are aggregate resource pools, not one sandbox of the displayed size: 50 concurrent 4 vCPU / 8 GiB workers need 200 vCPU / 400 GiB allocated at once, so the smallest fitting published pool is Enterprise ($12,451/mo); low CPU utilisation does not shrink the allocation. Taxes/optional services billed separately in Cost Center. (patch v10-regional, 2026-09-28)
- Some Sealos docs (llms.txt 'How Much Does It Cost?' section) still list Starter $7 / Hobby $25 as the plain monthly prices; the live pricing page shows these only as first-purchase new-user prices (regular $34 / $70). Use the pricing page.

## How this provider charges


Sealos Cloud (labring) is a Kubernetes PaaS. DevBox is its cloud dev-environment product. Everything in the account
(DevBoxes, deployed apps, managed databases, object storage) draws from **one flat monthly resource package**:
vCPU, RAM, disk, traffic, NodePorts and AI credits. There is **no metered or overage billing**. If you need more,
you upgrade manually. The bill is fixed however many hours DevBoxes run.

Source for all plan numbers: https://sealos.io/pricing/ (rendered: raw/sealos_io_pricing.txt).

## Regime table

| Regime | When it applies | How billed | Numbers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | New users, no card | 7 days | 4 vCPU, 4 GB, 5 GB storage, 500 MB bandwidth, 100 AI credits | https://sealos.io/pricing/ |
| Starter | Small experiments | Flat/mo | $34 (new user **$7**): 2 vCPU, 2Gi, 10Gi disk, 10GB traffic, 4 NodePorts, 100 AI credits | same |
| Hobby | Side projects | Flat/mo | $70 (new user **$25**): 4 vCPU, 4Gi, 20Gi, 50GB, 8 NodePorts, 300 AI credits | same |
| Standard | Production | Flat/mo | $128: 8 vCPU, 16Gi, 50Gi, 300GB, 16 NodePorts, 800 AI credits, priority support, 99.99% SLA | same |
| Pro | Scale | Flat/mo | $512: 16 vCPU, 32Gi, 200Gi, 1TB | same |
| Team | Scale | Flat/mo | $2,030: 64 vCPU, 128Gi, 500Gi, 3TB | same |
| Enterprise package | Scale | Flat/mo | $12,451: 256 vCPU, 1024Gi, 1024Gi, 10TB | same |
| Custom | Bespoke package + support | Contact sales | null | same |
| New-user price | "First paid plan purchase · Eligibility confirmed in Cost Center" | Discounted package | Starter −79%, Hobby −64%; recurrence not stated | same |
| Overage | Allocating beyond the package | **Not possible**. Upgrade required ("Your plan price covers the resources listed") | $0 | same |
| DevBox running vs sleeping | Normal shutdown | No separate charge (flat). Sleeping box **keeps its NodePort** against quota | — | https://sealos.io/blog/ssh-gateway-kubernetes-nodeport-solution/ |
| Cold shutdown | Release NodePort | Port returned to pool, new port on restart | — | same |
| Releases (OCI images) | Versioned snapshot of a DevBox | Storage cost not stated | null | https://sealos.io/docs/guides/devbox/release/ |
| Custom domain + SSL | All paid plans | Included | $0 | pricing FAQ |
| Self-hosted Sealos | Own cluster | Sealos Sustainable Use License (source-available, no third-party cloud resale) | licence fee n/a | https://github.com/labring/sealos |

Hourly equivalents (price / 730 h): Starter $0.0466, Hobby $0.0959, Standard $0.1753, Pro $0.7014, Team $2.7808, Enterprise $17.056.

### Dated notes
- Older third-party material cites pay-as-you-go "from $0.01 per CPU hour". It is no longer on the pricing page and no current metered rates are published.
- **Correction:** search snippets saying "Sealos pricing: CPU $40, RAM $20, Volume $3, Egress $2.50" are the **Railway** rates from Sealos's comparison calculator (verified 2026-08-21 on the page), not Sealos prices.

## Gotchas

1. **RAM is thin on the cheap plans** (1 GiB per vCPU on Starter/Hobby). Any 2 GiB-per-vCPU workload jumps to Standard or higher.
2. **Resources are pooled across everything** in the plan (DBs, apps, object storage), not per DevBox.
3. **Idle time is not rewarded.** The package costs the same at 1% or 100% usage. Sealos's own calculator puts break-even vs Railway at about 16% average utilisation.
4. **NodePorts are a hidden cap** (4/8/16 on the small plans). Sleeping DevBoxes still hold theirs unless cold-shut-down.
5. Traffic caps are hard package limits, and no per-GB overage price is published.
6. Package stacking (e.g. 4 × Team instead of Enterprise) is not documented.

## Worked example

4 vCPU / 8 GiB, 50 concurrent × 8 h/day × 22 days, 30% CPU, 50 GiB snapshots, 100 GiB egress.
Peak allocation = 50 × (4 vCPU, 8 GiB) = **200 vCPU / 400 GiB** plus 50 GiB storage and 100 GB traffic.

| Regime | Fits? | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Team ($2,030: 64 vCPU / 128Gi) | No (200 vCPU needed) | — |
| Enterprise package (256 vCPU / 1024Gi / 1024Gi / 10TB) | Yes | **$12,451** flat (≈ $1.41 per sandbox-hour at 8,800 h) |
| 4 × Team, if stacking is allowed (unverified) | 256 vCPU / 512Gi | $8,120 |
| Custom (sales) | Yes | unpublished |
| Only if DevBoxes can share CPU (30% util, overcommit not documented) | — | not modeled |

CPU utilisation, hours, snapshot GiB (within disk) and egress (within 10TB) do not change the bill.