Fly.io Sprites vs Smol Machines

Fly.io Sprites costs $0.0385 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Fly.io Sprites runs Firecracker microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 15, 2026

Fly.io Sprites

Persistent Linux computers that sleep when idle.

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

Visit site Fly.io Sprites profile

Smol Machines

Hosted Linux microVMs with their own kernel, for agents and untrusted code.

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

Visit site Smol Machines profile

What is different

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

Field

Fly.io Sprites

Smol Machines

vCPU, per hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.0385; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.021875; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Fly.io Sprites: $0.000683 per GiB-hour; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Fly.io Sprites: $30 trial credit; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Isolation: Fly.io Sprites: Firecracker microVM; Smol Machines: MicroVM
Snapshots: Fly.io Sprites:; Smol Machines: No
SDKs: Fly.io Sprites: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Fly.io Spritesfly.io/pricing

Smol Machinessmolmachines.com/pricingsmolmachines.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.0385; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Fly.io Sprites: $0.021875; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Fly.io Sprites: $0.000683 per GiB-hour; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Fly.io Sprites: $30 trial credit; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from: Fly.io Sprites: Pay as you go; Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing: Fly.io Sprites: Active CPU time only; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation: Fly.io Sprites: Firecracker microVM; Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: No
Snapshots: Fly.io Sprites:; Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume: Fly.io Sprites:; Smol Machines:

Developer

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

Trust

License: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC: Fly.io Sprites: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Fly.io Sprites

Smol Machines

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.082; Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.165; Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Fly.io Sprites: $0.329; Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Fly.io Sprites fits when

You use MCP, the OpenAI Agents SDK or Claude Code.
You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need snapshots.

Smol Machines fits when

You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
You want the larger free credit: $100 against $30.

More comparisons

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Fly.io Sprites

Smol Machines

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Fly.io Sprites fits when

Smol Machines fits when

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