My team and I are currently evaluating secure environments for AI agents and are very interested in Docker Sandbox (sbx). However, we are a bit confused about the licensing and pricing requirements for commercial use.
At first glance, this suggests that using sbx might not require a paid license.
Since we operate in an enterprise context, we are barred from using the free Docker Personal tier for internal business operations when it comes to Docker Desktop.
Our main question:
If we use only Docker Sandbox (sbx) without Docker Desktop installed in a commercial/enterprise environment, does this require a paid Docker subscription? Or is the standalone usage of sbx currently completely free, regardless of company size?
Any official clarification on how sbx fits into the commercial licensing model would be highly appreciated.
You can use it without subscription, but currently you need to log in with a docker account.
I’m not a Docker Staff member, but I’m pretty sure you don’t need to pay for sbx in order to use it for internal business operations, but there is also another service called “AI governance”
If you need an official answer for the company, you could click on the “Request changes” link in the documentation’s top right corner to open a ticket and ask for adding more information about the license to the documentation. You could also open a ticket in the sbx-releases repo I linked at the beginning of this post.
The wording only clarifies the technical requirement, not the licensing. If the docs don’t explicitly state sbx’s commercial licensing terms, it’s best to get confirmation from Docker directly. That will give you a clear answer on whether standalone sbx usage requires a paid subscription in an enterprise environment.
The previous post looks AI generated (which is forbiden on this forum) to me, but I can share that we got a confirmation from Docker internally. You can use SBX. Since I agree that the docs are not obvious and even Gordon, the AI in Docker desktop doesn’t know that sbx can be used for free, I reported that too.