Runtime vs Shardflux

Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour and Shardflux costs $0.04 per vCPU-hour. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit. Shardflux runs Firecracker microVMs and offers GPUs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

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

Shardflux

Serverless VMs for cloud agents that park when idle and keep their state.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: 30-day Pro trial, no card needed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Shardflux profile

What is different

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

Field

Runtime

Shardflux

vCPU, per hour: Runtime: $0.025; Shardflux: $0.04
RAM, per GiB-hour: Runtime: $0.0075; Shardflux: $0.015
Storage: Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB; Shardflux: Free
Free tier: Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days; Shardflux: 30-day Pro trial, no card needed
Paid plan from: Runtime: Pay as you go; Shardflux: $9 / month
Largest sandbox: Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB; Shardflux: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
GPU: Runtime: No; Shardflux:
SDKs: Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java; Shardflux: TypeScript, Python
Integrations: Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code; Shardflux: Claude Code, MCP, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Runtimewithruntime.com/pricingwithruntime.com

Shardfluxshardflux.dev/#pricingshardflux.dev

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Runtime: $0.025; Shardflux: $0.04
RAM, per GiB-hour: Runtime: $0.0075; Shardflux: $0.015
Storage: Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB; Shardflux: Free
Free tier: Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days; Shardflux: 30-day Pro trial, no card needed
Paid plan from: Runtime: Pay as you go; Shardflux: $9 / month
Billing: Runtime: Active CPU time only; Shardflux: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Runtime: No limit; Shardflux: Not listed
Idle stop: Runtime: After 5 minutes; Shardflux: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB; Shardflux: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Runtime: Up to 200; Shardflux: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation: Runtime: Firecracker microVM; Shardflux: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Runtime: No; Shardflux:
Snapshots: Runtime:; Shardflux:
Pause and resume: Runtime:; Shardflux:

Developer

SDKs: Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java; Shardflux: TypeScript, Python
Integrations: Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code; Shardflux: Claude Code, MCP, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License: Runtime: Not listed; Shardflux: Not listed
BYOC: Runtime: Not listed; Shardflux: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Runtime

Shardflux

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Runtime: $0.040; Shardflux: $0.070
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Runtime: $0.080; Shardflux: $0.140
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Runtime: $0.160; Shardflux: $0.280

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runtime fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want the lower list price: $0.080 against $0.140 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Shardflux fits when

You need GPUs.
You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 64 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Runtime

Shardflux

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Runtime fits when

Shardflux fits when

More comparisons

Related

Compare

Pricing

Browse