DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Lightweight virtual machines that run a container image in their own kernel and pause when idle.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site DigitalOcean MicroVMs 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

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

Field

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Billing: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only
Largest sandbox: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Isolation: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

DigitalOcean MicroVMsdocs.digitalocean.com/products/microvms/details/pricingdocs.digitalocean.com

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Free tier: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Paid plan from: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only

Limits

Max session: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Idle stop: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096

Platform

Isolation: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
GPU: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Snapshots: DigitalOcean MicroVMs:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:
Pause and resume: DigitalOcean MicroVMs:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:

Developer

SDKs: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Integrations: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366

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 $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need a sandbox larger than 4 vCPU · 8 GiB.
You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You use MCP or Claude Code.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

More comparisons

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DigitalOcean MicroVMs

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

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