Northflank Sandboxes vs Runtime

Northflank Sandboxes costs $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour. Northflank Sandboxes runs Cloud Hypervisor microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Northflank Sandboxes

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

Runtime

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

What is different

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

Northflank Sandboxes
Runtime
vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Runtime: $0.0075
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Runtime: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Northflank Sandboxes:
Runtime: No
SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Runtime: $0.025
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Runtime: $0.0075
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Paid plan from
Northflank Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Runtime: Pay as you go
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Runtime: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Northflank Sandboxes: No limit
Runtime: No limit
Idle stop
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Runtime: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Runtime: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Northflank Sandboxes:
Runtime: No
Snapshots
Northflank Sandboxes:
Runtime:
Pause and resume
Northflank Sandboxes:
Runtime:

Developer

SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Integrations
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Runtime: Not listed
BYOC
Northflank Sandboxes: Runs in your own cloud or VPC
Runtime: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Northflank Sandboxes
Runtime
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.033
Runtime: $0.040
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.067
Runtime: $0.080
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.133
Runtime: $0.160

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Northflank Sandboxes fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.067 against $0.080 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA.

Runtime fits when

  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK, the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or Claude Code.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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