ix vs Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

ix costs $0.0288 per vCPU-hour and Microsoft Foundry hosted agents costs $0.0994 per vCPU-hour. ix runs full VMs. Microsoft Foundry hosted agents runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

ix

Cloud VMs with up to 100 vCPUs, billed by usage.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: None
Max session: Not listed

Visit site ix profile

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Runs your AI agent code on Azure, with each session in its own microVM.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Microsoft Foundry hosted agents profile

What is different

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

Field

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

vCPU, per hour: ix: $0.0288; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
RAM, per GiB-hour: ix: $0.0108; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Billing: ix: Active CPU time only; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
Largest sandbox: ix: 100 vCPU · 256 GiB; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: ix: Up to 100; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
Isolation: ix: Full VM; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
SDKs: ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations: ix: MCP; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

ixix.dev/docs/pricingix.dev

Microsoft Foundry hosted agentsazure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/foundry-agent-serviceazure.microsoft.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: ix: $0.0288; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
RAM, per GiB-hour: ix: $0.0108; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Storage: ix: $0.101 per GiB-month stored; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Free tier: ix: None; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Paid plan from: ix: Pay as you go; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Pay as you go
Billing: ix: Active CPU time only; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second

Limits

Max session: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Idle stop: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes
Largest sandbox: ix: 100 vCPU · 256 GiB; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: ix: Up to 100; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000

Platform

Isolation: ix: Full VM; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
GPU: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Snapshots: ix:; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Pause and resume: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents:

Developer

SDKs: ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations: ix: MCP; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK

Trust

License: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
BYOC: ix: Not listed; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: ix: $0.050; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.123
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: ix: $0.101; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.246
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: ix: $0.202; Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.492

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

ix fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You want the lower list price: $0.101 against $0.246 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need snapshots.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
You need pause and resume.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

ix

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

ix fits when

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents fits when

More comparisons

Related

Compare

Pricing

Browse