Cloudflare Sandbox vs Smol Machines

Cloudflare Sandbox costs $0.072 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Cloudflare Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated

Cloudflare Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
None
Max session
Not listed

Smol Machines

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

What is different

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

Cloudflare Sandbox
Smol Machines
vCPU, per hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.072
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.009
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.000252 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Cloudflare Sandbox: None
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
Cloudflare Sandbox: $5 / month
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Largest sandbox
Cloudflare Sandbox: 4 vCPU · 12 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation
Cloudflare Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
Smol Machines: MicroVM
Snapshots
Cloudflare Sandbox:
Smol Machines: No
SDKs
Cloudflare Sandbox: TypeScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.072
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.009
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.000252 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Cloudflare Sandbox: None
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
Cloudflare Sandbox: $5 / month
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing
Cloudflare Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Cloudflare Sandbox: 4 vCPU · 12 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
Cloudflare Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: No
Snapshots
Cloudflare Sandbox:
Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs
Cloudflare Sandbox: TypeScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations
Cloudflare Sandbox: Claude Code, OpenAI Agents SDK
Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Cloudflare Sandbox
Smol Machines
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.090
Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.180
Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.360
Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Cloudflare Sandbox fits when

  • You use Claude Code or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
  • You need snapshots.

Smol Machines fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.180 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You want to start without paying.

More comparisons

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