Microsoft Foundry hosted agents vs Northflank Sandboxes

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents costs $0.0994 per vCPU-hour and Northflank Sandboxes costs $0.01667 per vCPU-hour. Microsoft Foundry hosted agents runs microVMs. Northflank Sandboxes runs Cloud Hypervisor microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit.

Updated

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Northflank Sandboxes

Isolation
Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Free tier
Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Northflank Sandboxes
vCPU, per hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
RAM, per GiB-hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Largest sandbox
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Isolation
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
SDKs
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
RAM, per GiB-hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Storage
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Free tier
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Paid plan from
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Pay as you go
Northflank Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second

Limits

Max session
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes: No limit
Idle stop
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
GPU
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes:
Snapshots
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes:
Pause and resume
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents:
Northflank Sandboxes:

Developer

SDKs
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Integrations
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed

Trust

License
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
Northflank Sandboxes: Runs in your own cloud or VPC

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Northflank Sandboxes
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.123
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.033
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.246
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.067
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.492
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.133

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or the OpenAI Agents SDK.

Northflank Sandboxes fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.067 against $0.246 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Related