Freestyle VMs vs Upstash Box

Freestyle VMs costs $0.04032 per vCPU-hour and Upstash Box costs $0.10 per vCPU-hour. Freestyle VMs runs full VMs. Upstash Box runs containers.

Updated

Freestyle VMs

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
Free plan, $0 forever
Max session
Not listed

Upstash Box

Isolation
Container
Free tier
Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Freestyle VMs
Upstash Box
vCPU, per hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Free tier
Freestyle VMs: Free plan, $0 forever
Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Paid plan from
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Upstash Box: Pay as you go
Billing
Freestyle VMs: Per second
Upstash Box: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Freestyle VMs: Up to 400
Upstash Box: Up to 1,000
Isolation
Freestyle VMs: Full VM
Upstash Box: Container
SDKs
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript
Upstash Box: Python, TypeScript
Integrations
Freestyle VMs: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK
Upstash Box: LangChain, Vercel AI SDK

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Free tier
Freestyle VMs: Free plan, $0 forever
Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Paid plan from
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Upstash Box: Pay as you go
Billing
Freestyle VMs: Per second
Upstash Box: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
Idle stop
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: After 360 minutes
Largest sandbox
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Freestyle VMs: Up to 400
Upstash Box: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
Freestyle VMs: Full VM
Upstash Box: Container
GPU
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
Snapshots
Freestyle VMs:
Upstash Box:
Pause and resume
Freestyle VMs:
Upstash Box:

Developer

SDKs
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript
Upstash Box: Python, TypeScript
Integrations
Freestyle VMs: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK
Upstash Box: LangChain, Vercel AI SDK

Trust

License
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
BYOC
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Freestyle VMs
Upstash Box
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Freestyle VMs: $0.066
Upstash Box: $0.100
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Freestyle VMs: $0.132
Upstash Box: $0.200
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Freestyle VMs: $0.264
Upstash Box: $0.400

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Freestyle VMs fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.132 against $0.200 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Upstash Box fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You use LangChain or the Vercel AI SDK.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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