Microsoft Foundry hosted agents vs Smol Machines
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents costs $0.0994 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Microsoft Foundry hosted agents runs microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.
Updated
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
- Isolation
- MicroVM
- Free tier
- Not listed
- Max session
- Not listed
Smol Machines
- Isolation
- MicroVM
- Free tier
- $100 credit, one time
- Max session
- Not listed
What is different
7 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Smol Machines
- vCPU, per hour
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
- Smol Machines: $0.05
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- Billing
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
- Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
- Largest sandbox
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
- SDKs
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
- Integrations
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
- Smol Machines: MCP
Full comparison
18 fields, at each provider's list price
Microsoft Foundry hosted agentsazure
Smol Machinessmolmachines
Pricing
- vCPU, per hour
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0994
- Smol Machines: $0.05
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.0118
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- Storage
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
- Free tier
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
- Paid plan from
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Pay as you go
- Smol Machines: Pay as you go
- Billing
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Per second
- Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Limits
- Max session
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Idle stop
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: After 15 minutes
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Largest sandbox
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Up to 2,000
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
Platform
- Isolation
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: MicroVM
- Smol Machines: MicroVM
- GPU
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: No
- Snapshots
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines:
- Pause and resume
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents:
- Smol Machines:
Developer
- SDKs
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
- Integrations
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, OpenAI Agents SDK
- Smol Machines: MCP
Trust
- License
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
- BYOC
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: Not listed
- Smol Machines: Not listed
Hourly cost
One sandbox running for one hour
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents
Smol Machines
- 1 vCPU · 2 GiB
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.123
- Smol Machines: $0.082
- 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.246
- Smol Machines: $0.165
- 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
- Microsoft Foundry hosted agents: $0.492
- Smol Machines: $0.330
Compute only, at list rates.
Open the calculatorWhich one fits
Based on the fields above
Microsoft Foundry hosted agents fits when
- You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
Smol Machines fits when
- You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
- You want the lower list price: $0.165 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.
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