Runloop vs Vercel Sandbox

Runloop costs $0.108 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. Runloop runs microVMs. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Runloop

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
$50 credit
Max session
Not listed

Vercel Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
5 CPU-hours every month
Max session
24 hours

What is different

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

Runloop
Vercel Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Runloop: $0.108
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runloop: $0.0252
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour
Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
Free tier
Runloop: $50 credit
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Runloop: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Runloop: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation
Runloop: MicroVM
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
SDKs
Runloop: Python, TypeScript
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Runloop: OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Runloop: $0.108
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runloop: $0.0252
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Runloop: $0.00034236 per GiB-hour
Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
Free tier
Runloop: $50 credit
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Runloop: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Runloop: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Runloop: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
Runloop: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Runloop: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Runloop: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000

Platform

Isolation
Runloop: MicroVM
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Runloop: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Runloop:
Vercel Sandbox:
Pause and resume
Runloop:
Vercel Sandbox:

Developer

SDKs
Runloop: Python, TypeScript
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Runloop: OpenAI Agents SDK, MCP
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK

Trust

License
Runloop: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Runloop: Deploy to VPC, Enterprise plan
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Runloop
Vercel Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Runloop: $0.158
Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Runloop: $0.317
Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Runloop: $0.634
Vercel Sandbox: $0.682

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runloop fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You use MCP.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.317 against $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Vercel Sandbox fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain or the Vercel AI SDK.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

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