Runloop vs Smol Machines

Runloop costs $0.108 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Runloop runs microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 15, 2026

Runloop

Devboxes built for coding agents.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $50 credit
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Runloop profile

Smol Machines

Hosted Linux microVMs with their own kernel, for agents and untrusted code.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $100 credit, one time
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Smol Machines profile

What is different

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

Field

Runloop

Smol Machines

vCPU, per hour: Runloop: $0.108; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Runloop: $0.0252; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Runloop: $50 credit; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Billing: Runloop: Per second; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox: Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Snapshots: Runloop:; Smol Machines: No
SDKs: Runloop: Python, TypeScript; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Runlooprunloop.ai/pricing

Smol Machinessmolmachines.com/pricingsmolmachines.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Runloop: $0.108; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: Runloop: $0.0252; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Runloop: $50 credit; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from: Runloop: Pay as you go; Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing: Runloop: Per second; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Runloop: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop: Runloop: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Runloop: Not listed; Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation: Runloop: MicroVM; Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU: Runloop: Not listed; Smol Machines: No
Snapshots: Runloop:; Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume: Runloop:; Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs: Runloop: Python, TypeScript; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations: Runloop: OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP, Claude Code; Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License: Runloop: Not listed; Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC: Runloop: Deploy to VPC, Enterprise plan; Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Runloop

Smol Machines

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Runloop: $0.158; Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Runloop: $0.317; Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Runloop: $0.634; Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runloop fits when

You use the OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP or Claude Code.
You need snapshots.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.
You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

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 $0.317 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You want the larger free credit: $100 against $50.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Runloop

Smol Machines

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Runloop fits when

Smol Machines fits when

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