Buddy Sandboxes vs Runloop

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and Runloop costs $0.108 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Runloop runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Buddy Sandboxes

Persistent Linux VMs that AI agents create and control through an API, SDK, CLI or MCP.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $1 of usage credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Buddy Sandboxes profile

Runloop

Devboxes built for coding agents.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $50 credit
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Runloop profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

Runloop

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Runloop: $0.108
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Runloop: $0.0252
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Runloop: $50 credit
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Runloop: Pay as you go
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Runloop: MicroVM
SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Runloop: Python, TypeScript
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Runloop: OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Buddy Sandboxesbuddy.works/docs/basics/billing-and-usage/gbminbuddy.works

Runlooprunloop.ai/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Runloop: $0.108
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Runloop: $0.0252
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Runloop: $50 credit
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Runloop: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; Runloop: Per second

Limits

Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; Runloop: Not listed
Idle stop: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Runloop: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Runloop: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Runloop: MicroVM
GPU: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Runloop: Not listed
Snapshots: Buddy Sandboxes:; Runloop:
Pause and resume: Buddy Sandboxes:; Runloop:

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Runloop: Python, TypeScript
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Runloop: OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Runloop: Not listed
BYOC: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Runloop: Deploy to VPC, Enterprise plan

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

Runloop

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; Runloop: $0.158
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; Runloop: $0.317
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; Runloop: $0.634

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.317 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Runloop fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use the OpenAI Agents SDK.
You want the larger free credit: $50 against $1.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Buddy Sandboxes

Runloop

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

Runloop fits when

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