Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime vs Shellbox

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime costs $0.0895 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime runs microVMs and limits a session to 8 hours. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
8 hours

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

What is different

10 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.0895
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.00945
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Session storage is free during preview. Code storage is billed at Amazon ECR or S3 rates
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Billing
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Active CPU time only
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Max session
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: 8 hours
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: After 15 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: 2 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Up to 5,000
Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: MicroVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Integrations
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.0895
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.00945
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Session storage is free during preview. Code storage is billed at Amazon ECR or S3 rates
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Pay as you go
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Active CPU time only
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: 8 hours
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: After 15 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: 2 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Up to 5,000
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: MicroVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Not listed
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime:
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Python, TypeScript
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.108
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.217
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime: $0.434
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001.

Shellbox fits when

  • A session must run longer than 8 hours.
  • You use Claude Code.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.217 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need snapshots.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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