DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Runtime

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Runtime

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Runtime
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Runtime: $0.0075
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Runtime: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Runtime: $0.0075
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: Pay as you go
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Runtime: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: No limit
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Runtime: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: No
Snapshots
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Runtime:
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Runtime:

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Integrations
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Runtime: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Runtime
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
Runtime: $0.040
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
Runtime: $0.080
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156
Runtime: $0.160

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

  • You want the lower list price: $0.078 against $0.080 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

Runtime fits when

  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK, the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or Claude Code.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.

More comparisons

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