Microsoft Foundry hosted agents vs Runtime

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents costs $0.0994 per vCPU-hour and Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour. Microsoft Foundry hosted agents runs microVMs. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

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

Runtime

Firecracker microVM sandboxes for AI agents, billed on the CPU that code uses.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Max session: No limit

Visit site Runtime profile

What is different

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

Field

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Runtime

vCPU, per hour: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994; Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118; Runtime: $0.0075
Billing: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second; Runtime: Active CPU time only
Idle stop: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes; Runtime: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB; Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000; Runtime: Up to 200
Isolation: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM; Runtime: Firecracker microVM
SDKs: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Integrations: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK; Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

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

Runtimewithruntime.com/pricingwithruntime.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994; Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118; Runtime: $0.0075
Storage: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed; Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed; Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Paid plan from: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Pay as you go; Runtime: Pay as you go
Billing: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second; Runtime: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed; Runtime: No limit
Idle stop: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes; Runtime: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB; Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000; Runtime: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM; Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed; Runtime: No
Snapshots: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed; Runtime:
Pause and resume: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents:; Runtime:

Developer

SDKs: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Integrations: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK; Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code

Trust

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

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Runtime

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.123; Runtime: $0.040
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.246; Runtime: $0.080
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.492; Runtime: $0.160

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runtime fits when

You use the Vercel AI SDK or Claude Code.
You want the lower list price: $0.080 against $0.246 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need snapshots.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

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Microsoft Foundry hosted agents

Runtime

What is different

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Hourly cost

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