Fly.io Sprites vs Sailboxes

Fly.io Sprites costs $0.0385 per vCPU-hour and Sailboxes costs $0.015 per vCPU-hour. Fly.io Sprites runs microVMs. Sailboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 14, 2026

Fly.io Sprites

Persistent Linux computers that sleep when idle.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $30 trial credit
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Fly.io Sprites profile

Sailboxes

Persistent Linux VMs for long-horizon AI agents.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $5 credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Sailboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

Fly.io Sprites

Sailboxes

vCPU, per hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.0385; Sailboxes: $0.015
RAM, per GiB-hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.021875; Sailboxes: $0.008
Storage: Fly.io Sprites: $0.000683 per GiB-hour; Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Fly.io Sprites: $30 trial credit; Sailboxes: $5 credit every month
Billing: Fly.io Sprites: Active CPU time only; Sailboxes: Per second
Isolation: Fly.io Sprites: MicroVM; Sailboxes: Full VM
SDKs: Fly.io Sprites: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go; Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Fly.io Spritesfly.io/pricing

Sailboxesdocs.sailresearch.com/sailboxes-pricingdocs.sailresearch.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.0385; Sailboxes: $0.015
RAM, per GiB-hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.021875; Sailboxes: $0.008
Storage: Fly.io Sprites: $0.000683 per GiB-hour; Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Fly.io Sprites: $30 trial credit; Sailboxes: $5 credit every month
Paid plan from: Fly.io Sprites: Pay as you go; Sailboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: Fly.io Sprites: Active CPU time only; Sailboxes: Per second

Limits

Max session: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: No limit
Idle stop: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Up to 5,000

Platform

Isolation: Fly.io Sprites: MicroVM; Sailboxes: Full VM
GPU: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
Snapshots: Fly.io Sprites:; Sailboxes:
Pause and resume: Fly.io Sprites:; Sailboxes:

Developer

SDKs: Fly.io Sprites: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go; Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Integrations: Fly.io Sprites: MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK; Sailboxes: Not listed

Trust

License: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
BYOC: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Fly.io Sprites

Sailboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.082; Sailboxes: $0.031
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.165; Sailboxes: $0.062
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.329; Sailboxes: $0.124

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Fly.io Sprites fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use MCP or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
You want the larger free credit: $30 against $5.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

Sailboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You want the lower list price: $0.062 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Fly.io Sprites

Sailboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Fly.io Sprites fits when

Sailboxes fits when

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