--- title: "Unikraft - The Infrastructure Platform for Building 10ms Sandboxes" description: "The millisecond compute layer used for sandboxes, headless browsers, CI/builds, functions / Agents / Databases and much more. Instant boot, VM-grade isolation, and millisecond scale-to-zero, so you can ship with superior economics. Deploy on-prem, BYOC or on dedicated hosts — you own the entire stack." doc_version: "1.0" last_updated: "2026-06-30" --- # Unikraft Cloud Build databases, sandboxes, headless browsers, CI/CD builds, AI agents, serverless functions that cold-start in 10 milliseconds. The compute layer for sandboxes, AI agents, or any workload. VM-grade isolation. Scale to zero in <10ms. Up to 100K+ instances per server. **Deploy on-prem, BYOC or on dedicated hosts - own the full stack**. ## At a glance - **<10ms** — COLD START (all workloads) - **100K+** — DENSITY (VMs/server) - **10-100×** — COST (better unit economics) ## The Definitive AI Cloud Platform ### Unprecedented Efficiency & Scalability Run faster, scale smarter, don't pay for idle - No cold starts: start workloads in **<10ms** - No idling: Scale to zero and resume in **<10ms** - High density: **100K+** microVMs in a standard box ### Scalability Handle millions of microVMs without breaking a sweat. - _**+100K microVMs**_ per server - Millisecond performance **at scale** - **10-100x** superior unit economics ### Zero Compromises Keep the tools you love, with the strong security of VMs - Hardware-level, **strong VM isolation** - Deploy anything -- based on **Dockerfiles** - Seamless integration: **Docker, k8s, Prometheus**, etc ## Use Cases ### Sandboxes - Strong VM isolation - Launch GBs sandbox envs in <10 ms - Fork sub-agents in milliseconds - Checkpoint in < 10 ms - 100K+ scale to zero agents in a server ### Headless Browsers - Cold starts in < 10ms - Chromium, Firefox or whatever framework is needed - Resume statefully in < 10ms - Horizontal scaling in seconds to deal with large peaks ### Full Remote Desktop Environments - Full desktop environments cold starting in < 10 ms - Millisecond scale to zero - Stateful restore of full desktop environment in < 10 ms - Huge density — 100Ks+ microVMs per server - Strong hardware-level isolation ### Build & Test Environments - Pack your (large) build environment into a "template" - Start any number of build envs from that template in < 10 ms - Inject build/test code into the environment via "ROMs", fast - Templates + ROMs = speed + customization - Support for 1000s of different envs - Kill the env when done, or scale it to zero and statefully resume it < 10ms ### Functions - Pack your (large) runtime environment into a "template" - Start any number of environments from that template in < 10 ms - Inject functions code into the environment via "ROMs", fast - Templates + ROMs = speed + customization - Support for 1000s of different runtimes - 100Ks microVMs per server for superior unit economics ### Databases - Cold start databases in < 10ms - Scale to zero and stateful resumes in < 10ms - Fork DBs in < 10 ms - Checkpoint DBs in < 10 ms - Run as strongly isolated VMs, not containers - Any DB: Postgres, MongoDB, Redis, etc. ### Game Servers - Cold start game servers in < 10ms - Scale to zero and stateful resumes in < 10ms - Run as strongly isolated VMs, not containers - 100Ks microVMs per server for superior unit economics ## Advanced Snapshotting Technology & Features ### Forking Fork a live virtual computer in 10 milliseconds, irrespective of its workload (its children too). Fork DBs, sub-agents, parallel headless browsers to retrieve a webpage faster, parallel debugging or build sessions, or whatever your use case demands. ### Templates Turn your [sandbox | headless browser | build | etc] runtime into a template and launch large number of instances from it in 10 milliseconds. The platform allows for 1,000s such templates — full flexibility and power! ### Checkpoints Checkpoint your running virtual computer at any point in time, rewind it, or launch a new VM from an existing checkpoint. And yes, you guessed it, in millisecond timescales. ### Migration Shift a running virtual computer from one server to another for HA, maintenance, re-load balancing, scaling in, and many other scenarios (e.g., running on spot instances). ### Persistent Storage Have virtual computers on different servers in a cluster share persistent storage seamlessly. ### Autoscale Big spikes? No problem. Unikraft Cloud is able to launch a fleet of new hosts in < 20 seconds to cope with unexpected large spikes. And to scale that back in when no longer needed. ## Your Cloud, Your Way ### Deploy Anywhere BYOC, on-prem or dedicated host deployments mean you have full access and control of the host. Full customization potential to meet every single one of your needs. Run our platform on bare metal servers but also VMs (e.g., AWS EC2 instances, GCP Compute Engine VM Instances and Azure Virtual Machines). ### Kubernetes Transparently deploy Unikraft as a node in an existing cluster, whether EKS, GKE, AKS or your own. Schedule pods to it — but have them run as strongly-isolated virtual machines that will scale to zero in 10 milliseconds. All of the power of k8s combined with all of the power and features of Unikraft. ### Your Own Linux Distribution, Each Time Unikraft transparently transforms your Dockerfile into a minimalistic, fast and extremely efficient Linux-based image — your own custom distro with all of the power and flexibility of Linux and none of the crud. Couple this with Unikraft's trimmed down Linux kernel and you're off to the races: run any workload, fast! ## Your Cloud, your Way ### Hosted - No infrastructure management - Fast, easy deployment - Cost-efficient & scalable ### Dedicated Hosted - Servers dedicated to you only - Even higher efficiency - HW specs customization ### On-Prem - Full infrastructure control - Data sovereignty & compliance - Predictable long-term costs ## Sitemap - [Home](https://unikraft.com/) - [How It Works](https://unikraft.com/how-it-works) - [AI](https://unikraft.com/ai) - [Pricing](https://unikraft.com/pricing) - [Customer Stories](https://unikraft.com/customer-stories) - [Blog](https://unikraft.com/blog) - [Documentation](https://unikraft.com/docs) - [Glossary](https://unikraft.com/glossary) - [Contact](https://unikraft.com/contact)