# Lizard

> Firecracker sandboxes at a flat hourly price per size, plus an app platform for whatever the agent builds.

Website: https://lizard.build  
Guide page: https://botperch.com/providers/lizard/  
Checked: 2026-10-28

**Short answer:** One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $19.00 a month here, the 2nd cheapest of the 11 providers that run it as described. The AI model adds about $14.70 a month on top (GLM 5.3, 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $6.84 at the cheapest host). Fits well: A flat hourly price per size with a $19 plan, billed per second including idle time.

Lizard is a cloud platform with two halves. Sandboxes are Firecracker microVMs for running agent code, sold in three fixed sizes at a flat hourly price. An app platform deploys a repository, with managed Postgres, Redis and S3-compatible storage.
The docs describe the sandbox half first and treat app deployment as the second step, once the agent has built something. The two halves are billed on different meters, which is the most confusing thing about the product.
The self-serve plans are Pro at $19 a month, Pro 5x at $99 and Pro 20x at $499; each includes its own fee back as usage across the whole platform, and the bigger two raise the sandbox limits.

**Who it is for:** Agent builders who want cheap per-hour machines with generous pause and snapshot semantics, and who may want to deploy the result on the same platform.

**Isolation:** Firecracker microVM with its own guest kernel, commands run as root by default, Linux only. Docker inside a sandbox, systemd and nested virtualisation are not documented.

**Sizes and regions:** Three fixed sizes: Small 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 5 GB, Medium 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 20 GB, Large 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 50 GB. No custom size and no live resize. Volumes add up to 50 GB at /workspace.

## How it charges

- model: Three plans, Pro at $19, Pro 5x at $99 and Pro 20x at $499 a month, each including its fee as usage; sandboxes are a flat hourly price per size.
- meter: Per second while running, idle time included, at $0.0162 / $0.0324 / $0.0648 an hour for Small / Medium / Large. Volumes bill per GB-month on used space.
- stopped: Paused compute is $0, and no storage charge for a paused sandbox's disk or memory is published. A stopped sandbox is deleted, so only volumes and snapshots remain.
- planFee: $19 (Pro), $99 (Pro 5x) or $499 (Pro 20x) a month, each coming back as the same amount of usage. Unused usage does not carry over.
- minimum: $19 a month is the floor. The 7-day trial includes $5 of usage and needs a card.

A flat hourly price per size, idle time included, from a $19 plan that comes back as usage.
- Between sessions the machine is paused, not stopped: a stopped sandbox is deleted. No storage charge for a paused sandbox is published.
- Extra disk is a volume at $0.14 per GB-month of used space.
- Sandbox egress is included up to 2 TB per rolling 30 days; the price beyond that is not published.
- Pro 5x ($99) and Pro 20x ($499) include the same amount of usage as their fee and raise the sandbox limits; they never lower a bill, so the calculator lands on Pro unless you need the higher limits.

## Monthly cost for each preset workload

- A personal agent that stays on (Hermes, OpenClaw): $19.00
- A coding agent for one developer: $19.00
- A code interpreter inside your product: $19.00
- A browser agent for a small team: $85.79
- Self-hosted n8n for a small team: $19.00
- A Discord or Slack bot for one server: $19.00
- Claude Code for a team of five: $39.92
- A scraper that runs four times a day: $19.00
- Your own remote MCP server: $19.00
- A: 1,000 short tasks: $19.00
- B: one always-on box: $27.85
- C: three hours a day: $19.00

## Fits well

- A flat hourly price per size with a $19 plan, billed per second including idle time.
- Snapshots that keep memory and processes, and forks of 1–100 copies.
- A dashboard-first first machine with a hosted MCP server for assistants.

## Fits badly

- A long job from the SDK or CLI: the default lifetime is five minutes and there is no idle timer.
- Anything outside /workspace that must survive a stop, which deletes the rest of the disk.
- SSH-dependent tooling: there is no SSH protocol, so scp and port forwarding do not work.

## Features

- **Isolation** (partly): Firecracker; root. A Firecracker microVM with its own kernel and root by default, but Docker inside a sandbox is not documented either way. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes#runtime-and-templates)
- **Sizes and regions** (partly): 8 vCPU / 16 GB; two regions. Three fixed sizes: Small 2/4/5 GB, Medium 4/8/20 GB, Large 8/16/50 GB. Two regions, no GPU, no live resize. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits#sandbox-sizes)
- **Lifecycle** (partly): Pause: RAM; fast pause: files. Pause keeps the whole disk, memory and processes; a fast pause keeps files only and resumes like a restart; stop or expiry deletes the sandbox disk, leaving only /workspace and snapshots. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes#lifecycle)
- **Snapshots and forks** (yes): RAM + disk; 1–100 forks. A snapshot captures memory, processes and the whole disk and restores into a new sandbox at the source's size; a fork copies a running sandbox 1–100 times with memory, pausing the source briefly. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart#pause-and-resume)
- **Storage** (partly): /workspace only; 1–50 GB. The local disk is lost on stop; only /workspace persists, through a named volume of 1–50 GB attached to one sandbox at a time and stored on one node. There is no trash. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/volumes.md) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/volumes)
- **Idle and waking** (partly): 5 min lifetime (SDK). There is no idle timer at all, but every sandbox has a hard lifetime deadline: five minutes by default from the SDK and CLI, and never by default from the dashboard and raw API. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- **Reaching it** (partly): One token per sandbox. A preview URL per exposed port, gated by one token per sandbox that opens every port on it. WebSockets pass through. No raw TCP, no SSH protocol, no custom domains for sandboxes. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls)
- **Custom domains** (partly): App services only. Custom domains are documented for deployed app services, not for sandbox preview URLs. A sandbox preview stays on the provider's hostname. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/networking)
- **Outbound network** (partly): 2 TB per 30 days. Outbound is open with no documented allowlist. Sandbox egress has no per-GB charge, with 2 TB per account over a rolling 30 days included. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits#sandbox-egress)
- **Keys and secrets** (partly): Yes, env vars. Secrets are create-time environment variables that reach every command, plus a scoped CLI key per sandbox that dies with it. No proxy and no host binding. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/variables)
- **Ways to drive it** (partly): Yes, dashboard. REST, TypeScript and Python SDKs, a CLI, a hosted MCP server and a dashboard terminal. There is no SSH protocol and no public VNC port. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/dashboard)
- **Built-in agents** (yes): Templates; CLI prompt. Five agent templates plus a base image and desktop variants. Agents are prompted from the CLI with streaming and interrupts; the SDK has no prompt method. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/agents)
- **Teams and accounts** (partly): No cap at all. Workspaces, projects and scoped keys, with caps on sandboxes, CPU, memory and disk. No spending cap at all; SSO and audit logs are Enterprise only. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/keys) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/workspace)
- **Billing models** (partly): $19 plan; flat per size. One $19 plan including $19 of usage; sandboxes are a flat hourly price per size, billed per second including idle, and volumes bill on used space. Snapshot storage has no published price. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing)
- **Trials and free tiers** (partly): 7 days / $5. A seven-day trial with $5 of usage, a card required, Small machines only, US regions only and up to five at once. One trial per account and per card. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing) [docs](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing#trial)
- **The company** (partly): Dragon Labs LLC; no SLA. Dragon Labs LLC, Portland address, Delaware law. Founded 2026 by Yura Dubinin (co-founder and president) and Mikhail Erin; no funding announced. Infrastructure on OVHcloud in Germany and the US. Status page reports Platform 99.95% and both regions 99.85%, but has no sandbox component and covers only widespread incidents. No published SLA; Enterprise lists SLAs. SOC 2 coming soon, no BAA. Price rises get dashboard or email notice and apply from the next calendar month; deletion after termination is within a commercially reasonable timeframe, immediate on request including backups. [source](https://lizard.build/terms)

## Capabilities

- Its own virtual machine: yes (Firecracker microVM) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Root access: yes (root by default) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference)
- Docker inside: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Nested virtualisation: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Your own image: no (fixed template catalog). You choose from a fixed list of templates and cannot upload your own image. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Any size you like: no (3 fixed sizes). There are three fixed sizes and no custom option. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Large machines: no (8 cores / 16 GB). The largest machine is 8 cores and 16 GB, so a 32 GB machine is not offered. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- Resize while running: no (fixed size). The size is chosen when the sandbox is created and cannot be changed. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- GPUs: no (CPUs only). Sandboxes run on processors only; there is no graphics option. [source](https://lizard.build/sandboxes)
- Choose the region: yes (2 regions) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- Runs in the EU: yes (EU West (Limburg)) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- Pause keeps memory: yes. A fast pause keeps only the files, so it is the option to avoid if work must survive. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart)
- Pre-started pools: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Starts in under a second: yes (228 ms median) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Snapshots of files: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart)
- Snapshots with memory: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart)
- Copy a running machine: yes (1–100 copies). A fork is refused when the source has a volume attached. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Pick an older snapshot: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart)
- Reusable templates: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Automatic backups: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Files survive a stop: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Separate volumes: yes (1–50 GB). A volume attaches to one sandbox at a time and lives on one node. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/volumes)
- One volume, several machines: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/volumes)
- Mount outside storage: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/addons/storage.md)
- Large disk: no (50 GB max). The largest size offers 50 GB of disk, short of 100 GB. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits.md)
- Can stay on indefinitely: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Choose the idle timeout: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Wakes on a request: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Scheduled runs: no [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- Public link to a port: no. Every preview link needs the machine's access token, so there is no open address to share. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Private link: yes (One token per machine) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Real SSH: partly (Own client only). Its shell command works, but it is the provider's own client rather than a standard SSH connection, so ordinary SSH tools cannot connect. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/ssh.md)
- Terminal in the browser: yes (Terminal tab) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/dashboard.md)
- Tunnel to your computer: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Non-web ports: no. Preview links carry web traffic only, so a database or game port cannot be published. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Your own domain: partly (Apps only). Custom domains work for deployed apps, not for a sandbox's preview link. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Automatic HTTPS: partly (Apps only). Certificates are handled for deployed apps, but a sandbox preview has no domain to certify. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/preview-urls.md)
- Outbound data included: yes (2 TB per 30 days) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits.md)
- Allow only some sites: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits.md)
- Turn the internet off: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits.md)
- Fixed outgoing IP: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits.md)
- Stored secrets: yes (At create time) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- Secrets the agent cannot read: no. There is no service that adds keys for you; keys are variables the agent can read. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- Limited API keys: yes (Project or workspace) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/keys.md)
- Create from the website: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/dashboard.md)
- Command-line tool: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/sandbox.md)
- Python SDK: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- TypeScript SDK: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)
- Documented HTTP API: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- MCP server: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/agents.md)
- Interactive terminal over the API: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- Files over the API: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/sdk-reference.md)
- Coding agents preinstalled: yes (5 agents) [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)
- Send it a prompt: partly. You can send a prompt from the command line, but the SDK and API have no prompt call, so a program cannot start an agent. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/cli/sandbox.md)
- One-click Hermes: no. The deploy catalog has no Hermes template; only a manual install in a sandbox. [source](https://lizard.build/deploy/openclaw--openclaw)
- One-click OpenClaw: yes [source](https://lizard.build/deploy/openclaw--openclaw)
- Browser built in: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)
- Desktop for computer use: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)
- Runs other platforms' agents: no. No page documents another platform's cloud agents using Lizard. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)
- Team workspace: yes [source](https://lizard.build/docs/concepts/architecture.md)
- Roles and permissions: partly. Role-based access is listed only on the Enterprise plan; the Pro plan marks it not included. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Single sign-on: partly. SSO and SAML are Enterprise-only; the Pro plan marks them not included. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Hard spending cap: no. There is no spending cap at all; only sandbox, CPU, memory and disk caps. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing.md)
- Usage alerts: not-published [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing.md)
- Audit log: partly. Audit logs are Enterprise-only; the Pro plan marks them not included. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Billed per second: yes (per second) [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- CPU billed only while working: no (idle is billed). Waiting time is charged at the same rate as working time. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Paused costs only storage: yes (compute stops) [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- No monthly fee: no ($19 plan). There is one plan at $19 a month, which includes $19 of usage. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Flat monthly price: yes ($0.0324/h medium) [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Ongoing free tier: no (7-day trial). There is no free tier, only a seven-day trial that needs a card. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing)
- Free starting credit: partly ($5 inside a trial). The $5 comes only as part of a seven-day trial and needs a card. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing)
- Try without a card: no (card for the trial). You add a card to start the trial, though nothing is charged at that point. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing)
- Public status page: yes [source](https://status.lizard.build)
- Uptime promise (SLA): partly. SLAs come with Enterprise support; no public numeric uptime promise exists. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- SOC 2 report: no. The SOC 2 report is listed as coming soon. [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Data processing agreement: yes [source](https://lizard.build/pricing)
- Open source or self-hostable: no. Lizard is hosted only; the docs describe its own infrastructure and no self-hosted edition. [source](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes.md)

## Usability

- Dashboard: Yes, and it creates sandboxes without code: pick a template, region, size and lifetime, then pause, resume, open a terminal or browse volumes.
- Without code: Partly. Creating a sandbox is click-driven, and the terminal tab gives you a shell. Running an agent, taking a snapshot, forking and attaching a volume are CLI or SDK only, and a card is needed to start the trial.
- Signup: GitHub or Google, then a card through Stripe Checkout for the 7-day trial. Nothing is charged during the trial. There is no free tier to use without a plan.
- Docs: Unusually candid: per-page updated dates, test-status notes saying what was and was not verified, raw Markdown twins. Support is email and Discord. The status page covers the platform but not sandbox capacity.
- Trips people up: The default lifetime is 5 minutes from the SDK and CLI, and never from the dashboard or raw API.
- Trips people up: Stop means delete, including everything outside /workspace.
- Trips people up: Everything interesting beyond creating a sandbox needs a terminal.
- Trips people up: The card comes before the product.
- Trips people up: Two bills in one number: apps are metered per vCPU-second, sandboxes are flat per hour, a 6.2× gap for the same capacity.
- Trips people up: Overage charges arrive automatically with no spending cap.

## Company

- Legal entity: Dragon Labs LLC, doing business as Lizard. Delaware law, with a Portland, Oregon mailing address. [source](https://lizard.build/terms)
- History: First public SDK release 24 June 2026 and first blog post 31 July 2026. No founding date is published. [source](https://registry.npmjs.org/@lizard-build/sdk)
- Funding: No announced round, amount or investor list. A directory labels the stage Seed.
- Headcount: Two, per LinkedIn. Yura Dubinin is named as co-founder and president; Mikhail Erin co-authors the blog. [source](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lizard-build)
- Status and SLA: 99.95% platform uptime. No sandbox component is monitored, and no SLA exists outside Enterprise. [source](https://status.lizard.build/)
- Certification: No SOC 2 report yet; no ISO 27001 or HIPAA claim is published.

## Caveats

- **Snapshot storage has no published price** (open): Restores are priced at the source's hourly rate, but stored snapshots have no rate anywhere on the pricing or billing pages.
- **Stop deletes the sandbox and its disk** (open): There is no stopped-but-restartable state. Only /workspace volumes and snapshots survive, and there is no trash or recycle bin.
- **Two default lifetimes that contradict each other** (contradiction): Five minutes from the SDK and CLI, no expiry from the raw API and dashboard. A beginner following the CLI docs can lose work without warning.
- **Docker inside a sandbox is not documented** (open): Neither is systemd, nested virtualisation, kernel feature support or CPU architecture. Treat all of them as unverified.
- **No spending cap** (open): Overage is charged automatically in steps from $20 up to $1,000, with no ceiling. The docs say so explicitly.
- **The runtime and billing model changed without notice** (open): On 30 September the docs described one fixed 4 vCPU / 4096 MiB sandbox in shared-kernel Kubernetes pods, billed on measured usage. By 13 October the pricing page listed Firecracker microVMs at flat per-size rates, from $0.0162 an hour. The changelog and blog do not mention the switch. Whether anyone's bill rose cannot be told, because the old usage rates were never published. Older sandboxes keep usage-based billing.

## Sources

- [Docs: sandboxes](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes)
- [Docs: quickstart](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/quickstart)
- [Docs: limits and sizes](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/limits)
- [Docs: billing](https://lizard.build/docs/platform/billing)
- [Docs: dashboard](https://lizard.build/docs/sandboxes/dashboard)
- [Pricing](https://lizard.build/pricing)