Buddy Sandboxes vs SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes 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

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Isolated microVMs for AI agents that fork from a saved snapshot, part of SF Compute Autoresearch.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: None
Max session: Not listed

Visit site SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

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

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only

Limits

Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Idle stop: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096

Platform

Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
GPU: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Snapshots: Buddy Sandboxes:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:
Pause and resume: Buddy Sandboxes:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366

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 $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You want to start without paying.
You need a sandbox larger than 4 vCPU · 8 GiB.

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Buddy Sandboxes

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

More comparisons

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