Runtime vs Upstash Box

Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour and Upstash Box costs $0.10 per vCPU-hour. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit. Upstash Box runs containers.

Updated

Runtime

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Max session
No limit

Upstash Box

Isolation
Container
Free tier
Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Runtime
Upstash Box
vCPU, per hour
Runtime: $0.025
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runtime: $0.0075
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Free tier
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Idle stop
Runtime: After 5 minutes
Upstash Box: After 360 minutes
Largest sandbox
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Runtime: Up to 200
Upstash Box: Up to 1,000
Isolation
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Upstash Box: Container
SDKs
Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Upstash Box: Python, TypeScript
Integrations
Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code
Upstash Box: LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Runtime: $0.025
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runtime: $0.0075
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Free tier
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Paid plan from
Runtime: Pay as you go
Upstash Box: Pay as you go
Billing
Runtime: Active CPU time only
Upstash Box: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Runtime: No limit
Upstash Box: Not listed
Idle stop
Runtime: After 5 minutes
Upstash Box: After 360 minutes
Largest sandbox
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Runtime: Up to 200
Upstash Box: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Upstash Box: Container
GPU
Runtime: No
Upstash Box: Not listed
Snapshots
Runtime:
Upstash Box:
Pause and resume
Runtime:
Upstash Box:

Developer

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

Trust

License
Runtime: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
BYOC
Runtime: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Runtime
Upstash Box
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Runtime: $0.040
Upstash Box: $0.100
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Runtime: $0.080
Upstash Box: $0.200
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Runtime: $0.160
Upstash Box: $0.400

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runtime fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.080 against $0.200 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Upstash Box fits when

  • You need GDPR.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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