CoreWeave Sandboxes vs Smol Machines

CoreWeave Sandboxes costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. CoreWeave Sandboxes runs microVMs, offers GPUs and limits a session to 720 hours. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated

CoreWeave Sandboxes

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
720 hours

Smol Machines

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

What is different

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

CoreWeave Sandboxes
Smol Machines
vCPU, per hour
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.128
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.0212
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Snapshots and volumes billed separately
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Billing
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Concurrent sandboxes
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Up to 2,000
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
GPU
CoreWeave Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
Snapshots
CoreWeave Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
SDKs
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Python, TypeScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.128
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.0212
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Snapshots and volumes billed separately
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
CoreWeave Sandboxes: 720 hours
Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Up to 2,000
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
CoreWeave Sandboxes: MicroVM
Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU
CoreWeave Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
Snapshots
CoreWeave Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Python, TypeScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Claude Code
Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC
CoreWeave Sandboxes: Your CKS clusters. CoreWeave runs the gateway.
Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

CoreWeave Sandboxes
Smol Machines
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.170
Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.341
Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
CoreWeave Sandboxes: $0.682
Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

CoreWeave Sandboxes fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You use Claude Code.
  • 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 $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Related