Skip to content
aicoolies logo
CUA (Computer-Use Agent) logo

CUA (Computer-Use Agent)

Open-source sandboxes and SDKs for AI agents that control desktops

Open-source computer-use infrastructure for agents that need to drive desktop environments in the background. CUA includes Cua Driver, Sandbox, Run, Bench, and Verified Data across Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android, with MCP and CLI surfaces for screenshots, accessibility trees, keyboard/mouse actions, shell commands, task evaluation, and fleet execution.

About CUA (Computer-Use Agent)

CUA provides infrastructure for computer-use agents that need reproducible access to operating systems and desktop applications. Its current product surface includes Cua Driver for background computer control, Cua Sandbox for local or cloud machine environments, Cua Run for scaling fleets of machines, Cua Bench for evaluation, and Verified Data for curated trajectories. The project is MIT licensed and its GitHub repository remains active with roughly 18.6K stars.

The platform targets cross-OS agent development across Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android. Developers can work through Python or TypeScript SDKs, the CUA CLI, MCP tools, and documentation for sandbox lifecycles, snapshots, secrets, parallel sandboxes, and benchmark integrations such as ScreenSpot and OSWorld-style tasks. This makes CUA more than a simple VM wrapper: it is a development and evaluation layer for agents that click, type, inspect interfaces, execute commands, and collect trajectories.

Current pricing language starts with the open-source GitHub stack and moves into hosted, BYOC, on-prem, or dedicated fleets as concurrency, OS mix, and compliance needs grow. That makes CUA best for teams that need controlled computer fleets for evals, RL loops, data generation, or batch rollouts, rather than buyers looking for a simple fixed-price SaaS tier. Procurement teams should confirm hosted and dedicated-fleet terms before using old per-resource pricing assumptions.

Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Free and open-source (MIT license) for self-hosting local desktop sandboxes (Docker, Lume on Apple Silicon, QEMU). Cua Cloud provides managed ephemeral desktop VM infrastructure with a Pro plan starting around $10/mo, usage-based compute pricing, and custom Enterprise/BYOC deployment options.

full pricing breakdown →

Supported Platforms

macOS, Linux, Windows, Android; Docker, QEMU, Apple Virtualization

Explore categories, tags & use cases

The 5MB open-source agent daemon that hides nothing

CrabTalk is a lightweight five-megabyte daemon that streams every AI agent event to your client in real time including text deltas, tool calls, and thinking steps. It provides complete transparency into agent operations with one-curl installation and bring-your-own-model support. Designed as the observable alternative to opaque agent runtimes where you cannot see what the AI is actually doing.

Open Source

Google's official Agent Development Kit for building AI agents in Go

adk-go is Google's official Agent Development Kit for the Go programming language, providing the tools and abstractions needed to build production AI agents. It supports tool calling, multi-turn conversations, structured outputs, and integration with Google's Gemini models. With 7,300 GitHub stars and Apache 2.0 license, it brings first-class AI agent development capabilities to the Go ecosystem.

Open Source

Alibaba's Spring framework for building AI applications in Java

Spring AI Alibaba is Alibaba's open-source framework that brings AI capabilities to Java Spring Boot applications. It provides auto-configuration for AI model providers, RAG pipeline components, agent frameworks, and tool integration following Spring conventions. With 9,100 GitHub stars and 220+ contributors, it is the most mature AI framework for Java enterprise developers building production AI features.

Open Source

SQL-native memory infrastructure for AI agents and applications

Memori is an AI memory engine that provides persistent, queryable memory for agents and applications using SQL-native storage. It stores structured memories with semantic search, temporal awareness, and relationship tracking, enabling AI systems to remember user preferences, past interactions, and contextual facts across sessions. With 12,900 GitHub stars, it offers a database-native approach to the agent memory problem.

Open Source

Build real-time temporal knowledge graphs for AI agents

Graphiti is an open-source Python framework by Zep for building temporally-aware knowledge graphs for AI agents. It continuously integrates conversations, business data, and external information into queryable graphs with bi-temporal tracking. The hybrid retrieval combines semantic search, BM25 keywords, and graph traversal for sub-300ms queries without LLM calls at retrieval time.

freemiumOpen Source

Side-by-Side Comparisons

CUA (Computer-Use Agent) logo
CUA (Computer-Use Agent)
vs
OpenHands logo
OpenHands

CUA vs OpenHands: Computer-Use Agent Infrastructure Compared

CUA and OpenHands both enable AI agents to autonomously control computers, but they target different layers of the stack. CUA provides sandboxed VM infrastructure where any agent can operate safely, while OpenHands is a complete autonomous coding platform with its own agent logic. The choice depends on whether you need infrastructure for custom agents or a ready-to-use coding assistant.

CUA (Computer-Use Agent)OpenHands

Community experience

Sources & verification

Sources checked
Content verified

Verification dates are editorial checks. Routine CMS saves and automatic updatedAt timestamps do not advance them.

FAQ

What is CUA (Computer-Use Agent)?

Open-source computer-use infrastructure for agents that need to drive desktop environments in the background. CUA includes Cua Driver, Sandbox, Run, Bench, and Verified Data across Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android, with MCP and CLI surfaces for screenshots, accessibility trees, keyboard/mouse actions, shell commands, task evaluation, and fleet execution.

Is CUA (Computer-Use Agent) free?

CUA (Computer-Use Agent) offers a free tier alongside paid plans. Free and open-source (MIT license) for self-hosting local desktop sandboxes (Docker, Lume on Apple Silicon, QEMU). Cua Cloud provides managed ephemeral desktop VM infrastructure with a Pro plan starting around $10/mo, usage-based compute pricing, and custom Enterprise/BYOC deployment options.

Is CUA (Computer-Use Agent) open source?

Yes — CUA (Computer-Use Agent) is open source.

Is CUA (Computer-Use Agent) still maintained?

Yes — CUA (Computer-Use Agent) is active. Its listing was last verified on September 6, 2026.

What are the best CUA (Computer-Use Agent) alternatives?

The first editor-selected CUA (Computer-Use Agent) alternatives are CrabTalk, adk-go, Spring AI Alibaba, and more.

How does CUA (Computer-Use Agent) score in our review?

The published editorial review lists CUA (Computer-Use Agent) at 86/100 overall across speed, privacy, and developer experience. Check the review's evidence status and test metadata for its verification level.