NoMacAWS EC2 Mac alternative
NoMac vs AWS EC2 Mac
No 24-hour minimum. NoMac bills your agent's Mac per minute: a 20-minute build costs about 30¢, not about $21 for a day of an EC2 Mac host.
A Mac for your agent, ready in about a minute.
$0.90/hour · billed per minute · credit never expires
7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase. Prices checked 25 October 2026 from public list prices.
What AWS EC2 Mac is
Mac mini and Mac Studio hardware on AWS Dedicated Hosts, run as EC2 instances. Hosts bill per second with a 24-hour minimum allocation; a mac2-m2 host lists at $0.878 an hour in US East (N. Virginia).
NoMac vs AWS EC2 Mac at a glance
| NoMac | AWS EC2 Mac | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum charge | One minute | 24 hours per host |
| A 20-minute build | About 30¢ | About $21 (24 hours of mac2-m2) |
| Setup | Sign in and start a Mac | Dedicated host, AMI, VPC and IAM |
| Starting image | Xcode 27 and the iOS 27 Simulator ready | A macOS AMI you configure |
| Cleanup | Stopping deletes the Mac | Release the host after the 24-hour minimum |
| Agent connection | MCP, CLI, REST API and SSH | SSH, SSM and AWS APIs |
Why teams choose NoMac
- ✓Pay for minutes, not days: a one-minute minimum instead of a 24-hour host allocation.
- ✓No dedicated hosts, AMIs, VPCs, security groups or IAM. Sign in and start a Mac.
- ✓Xcode 27, the iOS 27 Simulator, Homebrew and CocoaPods already installed.
- ✓Every session has a spend cap ($5 by default), so a forgotten Mac cannot run up a bill.
- ✓Stopping deletes the Mac at once, with no host to release a day later.
The verdict
For an agent that needs a Mac for a build, a 24-hour host is the wrong unit. NoMac bills the minutes the work takes, with Xcode 27 ready and nothing in AWS to set up.
Switch in two minutes
Give your agent a Mac now. From your project directory:
npm install -g @nomac/cli nomac login nomac start --json nomac sync . nomac ssh -- xcodebuild -list nomac stop --json # or let Claude Code drive it claude mcp add nomac -- npx @nomac/cli mcp
Or give your agent nomac.app/install and it sets itself up.
Questions
What is the best AWS EC2 Mac alternative for AI agents?＋
NoMac: your agent's own Mac in the cloud. A fresh macOS machine with Xcode 27 and admin rights, driven over MCP, the CLI, the REST API or SSH, at $0.90 an hour, billed per minute. Your agent builds, tests, signs and ships the app from that Mac.
How much does NoMac cost?＋
$0.90 an hour, billed per minute, from prepaid credit: $10 buys 11.1 hours and never expires. You pay only while the Mac is ready, with a one-minute minimum, and setup is free. No subscription, no overage, and bigger top-ups add up to 20% bonus credit. 7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase.
Can Claude Code, Codex or Cursor use NoMac?＋
Yes, in one line: claude mcp add nomac -- npx @nomac/cli mcp, or the hosted MCP endpoint https://mcp.nomac.app/mcp from a cloud sandbox. Your agent starts a Mac, runs commands, reads the output and stops it on its own.
Do I need an Apple Developer account?＋
Not to build, test or run the iOS Simulator. To publish on TestFlight and the App Store you need only your Apple Developer account, and your agent does the signing and the upload for you.
Does my work carry over between Macs?＋
Yes. Your account's 20 GB encrypted drive at ~/drive comes with every Mac, so your projects, packages and Xcode's build cache are there and builds stay incremental.
Stop paying for a Mac that waits for you.
Full macOS with Xcode and root, over MCP, CLI, API or SSH. $0.90 an hour, billed per minute, with your 20 GB drive on every Mac. $10 of credit is 11.1 hours.
Get your agent a Mac7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase.