Blaxel vs Smol Machines

Blaxel bills memory only, at $0.0414 per GiB-hour. Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Blaxel runs microVMs and has no session limit. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 15, 2026

Blaxel

Sandboxes that pause when idle and resume with state.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: Credit of up to $200
Max session: No limit

Visit site Blaxel profile

Smol Machines

Hosted Linux microVMs with their own kernel, for agents and untrusted code.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $100 credit, one time
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Smol Machines profile

What is different

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

Field

Blaxel

Smol Machines

vCPU, per hour: Blaxel: Included; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Blaxel: $0.0414; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Blaxel: Snapshots $0.20 per GB per month. Volumes $0.12 per GB per month.; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Blaxel: Credit of up to $200; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Billing: Blaxel: Memory only; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Snapshots: Blaxel:; Smol Machines: No
SDKs: Blaxel: Python, TypeScript, Go; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Blaxelblaxel.ai/pricing

Smol Machinessmolmachines.com/pricingsmolmachines.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Blaxel: Included; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Blaxel: $0.0414; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Blaxel: Snapshots $0.20 per GB per month. Volumes $0.12 per GB per month.; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Blaxel: Credit of up to $200; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from: Blaxel: Pay as you go; Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing: Blaxel: Memory only; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Blaxel: No limit; Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop: Blaxel: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Blaxel: Not listed; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Blaxel: Not listed; Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation: Blaxel: MicroVM; Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU: Blaxel: Not listed; Smol Machines: No
Snapshots: Blaxel:; Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume: Blaxel:; Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs: Blaxel: Python, TypeScript, Go; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations: Blaxel: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, MCP, Claude Code, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK; Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License: Blaxel: Not listed; Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC: Blaxel: Bring-your-own-metal in your VPC, on request; Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Blaxel

Smol Machines

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Blaxel: $0.083; Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Blaxel: $0.166; Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Blaxel: $0.331; Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Blaxel fits when

You use the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Claude Agent SDK, MCP, Claude Code, LangChain or the Vercel AI SDK.
You want the larger free credit: $200 against $100.
You need snapshots.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Smol Machines fits when

You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.166 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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Blaxel

Smol Machines

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Blaxel fits when

Smol Machines fits when

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