Novita Sandbox vs Shellbox

Novita Sandbox costs $0.03528 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Novita Sandbox limits a session to 3 hours. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Novita Sandbox

Isolation
Not listed
Free tier
$100 promotional credit after a setup survey, no card
Max session
3 hours

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

Novita Sandbox
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
Novita Sandbox: $0.03528
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Novita Sandbox: $0.01152
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Novita Sandbox: $0.00009 per GiB-hour after 60 free GiB
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Billing
Novita Sandbox: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Max session
Novita Sandbox: 3 hours
Shellbox: No limit
Largest sandbox
Novita Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Novita Sandbox: Up to 100
Shellbox: Up to 16
Integrations
Novita Sandbox: Claude Code, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Novita Sandbox: $0.03528
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Novita Sandbox: $0.01152
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Novita Sandbox: $0.00009 per GiB-hour after 60 free GiB
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
Novita Sandbox: $100 promotional credit after a setup survey, no card
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
Novita Sandbox: Pay as you go
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Novita Sandbox: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Novita Sandbox: 3 hours
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Novita Sandbox: Not listed
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Novita Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Novita Sandbox: Up to 100
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
Novita Sandbox: Not listed
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Novita Sandbox: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Novita Sandbox:
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
Novita Sandbox:
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
Novita Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
Novita Sandbox: Claude Code, OpenAI Agents SDK
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
Novita Sandbox: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
Novita Sandbox: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Novita Sandbox
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Novita Sandbox: $0.058
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Novita Sandbox: $0.117
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Novita Sandbox: $0.233
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Novita Sandbox fits when

  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

Shellbox fits when

  • A session must run longer than 3 hours.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.117 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 8 vCPU · 8 GiB.

More comparisons

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