Perplexity Sandbox vs Runtime

Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour. Perplexity Sandbox runs containers. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Perplexity Sandbox

Isolated Linux containers that run Python and bash code inside a Perplexity Agent API request.

Isolation: Container
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Perplexity Sandbox 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

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

Field

Perplexity Sandbox

Runtime

Isolation: Perplexity Sandbox: Container; Runtime: Firecracker microVM
SDKs: Perplexity Sandbox: Python, TypeScript; Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Perplexity Sandboxdocs.perplexity.ai/docs/getting-started/pricingdocs.perplexity.ai

Runtimewithruntime.com/pricingwithruntime.com

Pricing

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

Limits

Max session: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: No limit
Idle stop: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation: Perplexity Sandbox: Container; Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: No
Snapshots: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime:
Pause and resume: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime:

Developer

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

Trust

License: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: Not listed
BYOC: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Perplexity Sandbox

Runtime

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: $0.040
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: $0.080
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Perplexity Sandbox: Not listed; Runtime: $0.160

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Perplexity Sandbox fits when

You need SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR.

Runtime fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK, the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP or Claude Code.
You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.

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Perplexity Sandbox

Runtime

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Perplexity Sandbox fits when

Runtime fits when

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