# Docker Offload

Docker, extended to every environment. — Toggle Docker Offload and your containers are running in the cloud. Same workflow, zero configuration.

Source: https://wheredoirunthis.com/products/docker-offload · JSON: https://wheredoirunthis.com/api/products/docker-offload · Read on 2026-09-25

## At a glance

- Type: Persistent environment
- Kind: Hosted
- Isolation: Virtual machine
- Free tier: No
- Starting price: Not disclosed
- GPU: No
- Regions: Not disclosed
- Coverage: 3 of 55 assessed capabilities supported · 6 not assessed
- Agent readiness: read 10 of 11 signals, drive 5 of 11 signals

## Links

- Homepage: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/
- Docs: https://docs.docker.com/offload/
- Pricing: https://www.docker.com/pricing/contact-sales/

## Pricing

- Model: Sales-led enterprise subscription on top of Docker Business ('Predictable pricing'); no public price.
- Unit: unknown (per named user implied by fair-use terms)
- Free tier: No

| Tier | Price | Includes | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Multi-Tenant | Contact sales | VM-level isolation, Docker-managed infrastructure, SOC 2 | Requires Docker Business. [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Single-Tenant | Contact sales | Dedicated VPC, private connectivity, enhanced network isolation |  [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| BYOC (coming soon) | Contact sales | Customer-controlled data plane | Not yet available. [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |

- Overages: Not published; fair-use session management beyond 8 compute hours/user/day 'at Docker's discretion'.
- Card required: Not documented
- Source: https://www.docker.com/pricing/contact-sales/

## Runtime

- **GPU & accelerators**: No [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **BYOC (Bring your own cloud)**: coming soon — "Deployment options: Multi-Tenant, Single-Tenant (dedicated VPC, private connectivity), and 'BYOC — Coming Soon — You control the data plane'." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) (confidence: high)
- **Secrets management**: Yes [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **Storage options**: Ephemeral per-session VM storage (containers, images, volumes deleted at session end); local bind mounts synced over the tunnel. [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **Supported workloads**: container builds and runs from VDI / managed desktops without nested virtualization, docker compose dev stacks on low-powered or locked-down machines, enterprise developer environments under central admin control [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **Persistence**: ephemeral — "'If the idle period exceeds 5 minutes without activity, the session is terminated … the remote environment and any containers, images, or volumes in it are deleted.'" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) (confidence: high)
- **Data jurisdiction**: United States (inferred) — Docker's cloud sub-processors are AWS (N. Virginia) and Google (US); product page claims 40+ regions without listing them — "Sub-processor list hosts in the US; '40+ regions for resiliency' is unlisted, so actual placement is unknown." [source](https://www.docker.com/trust/privacy/sub-processors/) (confidence: low)
- **Resource limits & quotas**: 4 vCPU / 8 GiB host; one session per user; idle prompt after 3 min of inactivity, terminated 5 min after going idle; long-session prompts every 3h (hourly after 8h/day); fair use = up to 8 compute hours per named user per day. [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **SDK languages**: Not documented [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/)
- **Network & egress controls**: No [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/)
- **Snapshots & forks**: No [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/)
- **Deployment methods**: cli, dashboard, container-image, dockerfile — "`docker offload start`, then unchanged `docker run` / `docker build` / `docker compose`; or the Docker Desktop header toggle." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/quickstart/) (confidence: high)
- **Isolation**: Virtual machine — "'VM-level isolation — Dedicated cloud environment per developer'; 'Ephemeral VMs destroyed every session'. Containers run under a Docker daemon inside that per-developer VM. Hypervisor/provider not named." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) (confidence: high)

## Capabilities

### AI & agents

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Agent skills | Not supported | "No agent skills." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| AI app builder | Not supported | "No app builder." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Autonomous QA agent | Not supported | "No QA agent." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Built-in coding agent | Not supported | "No agent." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| BYOK for LLMs | Not supported | "No LLM features." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Credential-injection proxy | Not supported | "support for secure secrets" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| LLM gateway | Not supported | "No LLM gateway." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| MCP client | Not supported | "No MCP client surface." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| MCP-server hosting | Not supported | "No MCP hosting." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| MCP server | Partially supported | "MCP endpoint for structured agent access: https://mcp-docs.docker.com/mcp" [source](https://docs.docker.com/llms.txt) |
| Model inference API (first-party) | Not supported | "No inference API." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Preinstalled coding agent | Not assessed |  |

### Networking & delivery

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic HTTPS | Not supported | "Port forwarding … continue to work seamlessly" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Custom domains | Not supported | "No custom domains — dev sessions are not publicly addressed." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Direct public IPv6 | Not supported | "No public addressing." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Edge KV store | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Egress controls | Not supported | "Private network access available." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Email send / receive | Not supported | "No email primitive." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Public preview URLs | Not supported | "port forwarding" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Private networking | Partially supported | "Single-Tenant: Private connectivity available · Dedicated VPC · Enhanced network isolation" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Built-in reverse proxy | Not supported | "features like bind mounts and port forwarding continue to work" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |

### Organisation & security

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built-in auth | Not supported | "No workload auth." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| BYOC | Partially supported | "BYOC — Coming Soon — You control the data plane" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Deploy into customers' VPCs | Not assessed |  |
| Secrets management | Partially supported | "encrypted tunnels between Docker Desktop and cloud environments with support for secure secrets and image pulling" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Self-host / OSS core | Not supported | "Fully managed. Nothing to build." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Sharing | Not supported | "Sessions are per-developer; no sharing." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| SSO / SAML | Supported | "Enterprise SSO and admin controls" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Teams | Supported | "Organization owners can manage settings for all users in their organization" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/configuration/) |
| Workload identity | Not assessed |  |

### Developer access

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CLI | Supported | "`docker offload start` / `status` / `stop` / `diagnose`" [source](https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/offload/) |
| E2B-compatible API | Not assessed |  |
| Filesystem API | Not supported | "bind mounts … continue to work" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Git deploy | Not supported | "No git deploy." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| HTTP data API | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| OpenAPI spec | Not supported | "No OpenAPI." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/) |
| Private container registry | Not supported | "push images to a registry such as Docker Hub" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Public API | Not supported | "docker offload diagnose \| start \| status \| stop \| version" [source](https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/offload/) |
| SDK | Not supported | "No SDK." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/) |
| SSH access | Not supported | "Docker Desktop creates a secure SSH tunnel to a Docker daemon running in the cloud." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |

### Compute & storage

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cloud-init / ignition config | Not supported | "No boot customisation." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Desktop / computer-use sandbox | Not supported | "No virtual desktop." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| GPU compute | Not supported | "Docker Offload uses cloud hosts with 4 vCPUs and 8 GiB of memory. If you have different requirements, contact Docker" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Live-state (memory) snapshots | Not assessed |  |
| Multi-region | Partially supported | "Global coverage — 40+ regions for resiliency." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Object storage | Not supported | "No object storage offered." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Persistent disk | Not supported | "Docker Offload environments are ephemeral, so the remote environment and any containers, images, or volumes in it are deleted." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Sandbox templates / custom images | Not supported | "builds or pulls the required images and starts containers" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Scale to zero | Partially supported | "When Docker Desktop is in an Offload idle state, it waits for activity on the Docker API and only connects to a cloud environment when needed." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |
| Selectable isolation runtime | Not assessed |  |
| Snapshots / forking | Not supported | "No snapshot/fork of the session VM documented." [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/about/) |

### Data

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Database branching | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Ephemeral instant DB (no-signup) | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| First-party database | Not supported | "No managed DB." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Vector search | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |

### Platform & operations

| Capability | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Managed CI/CD runners | Not supported | "No CI runner product (Docker Build Cloud is a separate sibling)." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Built-in observability | Partially supported | "The Offload activity page in Docker Home provides visibility into user activity and session metrics" [source](https://docs.docker.com/offload/usage/) |
| Preview environments | Not supported | "No per-PR environments." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Scheduled tasks | Not supported | "No scheduler." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Project template marketplace | Not applicable | "n/a" [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |
| Durable workflows | Not supported | "No durable workflows." [source](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-offload/) |

## Agent readiness

### Read: 10 of 11 signals present

10/11 signals (7 full, 3 partial)

- Llms txt: pass — "docs.docker.com/llms.txt (v3: docs-subdomain copy counts) links '[Docker Offload](https://docs.docker.com/offload/): Build and run containers in the cloud.' plus per-section .md URLs."
- Llms full txt: partial — "docs.docker.com/llms-full.txt is page metadata + markdown URLs, not full text (same file as docker-sandboxes)."
- Robots AI policy: pass — "docs.docker.com/robots.txt: 'Content-Signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes'."
- JSON LD: partial — "Corporation/WebSite + FAQPage graphs; no SoftwareApplication/Product."
- Sitemap: pass — "docs sitemap lists all 8 Offload pages + CLI reference; www sitemap_index present."
- Meta quality: pass — "<title>Docker Offload: Supercharging Cloud-Native Development | Docker</title> + description + OG + twitter:card."
- Markdown negotiation: pass — "docs.docker.com serves <page>.md and text/markdown on Accept negotiation."
- Content efficiency: partial — "Readable text / HTML = 2.95% on the product page."
- Docs discoverable: pass — "'Read the docs' → docs.docker.com/offload linked on the product page (plain HTML)."
- Pricing machine readable: fail — "No price anywhere — 'Contact sales' only; not on docker.com/pricing."
- Anti bot: pass — "No challenge on public pages/docs."

### Drive: 5 of 11 signals present

5/11 signals (1 full, 4 partial)

- Public API: fail — "No Offload API — CLI and Desktop toggle only."
- Openapi spec: fail — "None."
- MCP server: partial — "Docs-search MCP only (mcp-docs.docker.com/mcp)."
- SDK packages: fail — "None."
- Auth docs: partial — "'Verify authentication with docker login' — basic account sign-in, no API auth to document."
- Agent self serve creds: fail — "Human/sales only: 'contact sales and subscribe your organization'; requires Docker Business + an Offload subscription."
- Webhooks: fail — "None."
- CLI tool: pass — "`docker offload` CLI plugin (start/status/stop/diagnose/version)."
- Error model: fail — "No API error model."
- Rate limit docs: partial — "Fair-use limit documented ('up to 8 compute hours per named user per day'; one session per user) — usage policy, not API rate limits."
- Agent config: partial — "One agent-facing surface (Docker docs llms.txt + docs MCP); no agents.md / /.well-known/agent / skills listing."

## Compliance & regions

- SOC 2 Type II: certified (scope: hosted) — "The current SOC 2 Type 2 audit report includes Docker Desktop, Hub, Scout, Build Cloud, Testcontainers Cloud, Docker Hardened Images (DHI), and Offload." [source](https://www.docker.com/trust/compliance/)
- GDPR: self-attested (scope: hosted) — "Docker complies with leading privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, …" [source](https://www.docker.com/trust/compliance/)
- CCPA: self-attested (scope: hosted) — "Docker complies with leading privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, …" [source](https://www.docker.com/trust/compliance/)
- Regions note: Landing claims '40+ regions for resiliency' / '40+ regions available' but lists none and the docs document no region selection. Company-wide sub-processors host in the US (AWS N. Virginia, Google US).

## Company & presence

- Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA, USA (mailing address); fully remote company with office hubs in Paris and Seattle
- Founded: 2013 (Docker first demoed publicly at PyCon, 2013-03-15, by founder Solomon Hykes; the company began as dotCloud)
- Funding: Series C, $105M, 2022-03-31
- Privacy policy: https://www.docker.com/legal/docker-privacy-policy/
- Terms of service: https://www.docker.com/legal/docker-subscription-service-agreement/
- Blog: https://www.docker.com/blog/
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/docker
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/docker
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dockerrun

## Nearby in the atlas

- [Catnip](/products/catnip.md)
- [exe.dev](/products/exe.dev.md)
- [machine](/products/machine.md)
- [machine0](/products/machine0.md)
- [Multipass](/products/multipass.md)
- [ShellBox](/products/shellbox.md)

## Method

Facts come from the product's own public pages. Each claim carries its evidence: a quote and the page it came from. We count capabilities rather than grade products, and "Not assessed" means we have not checked, never that the product lacks it.