Runtime vs Vercel Sandbox

Runtime costs $0.025 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Runtime

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

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.

Runtime
Vercel Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Runtime: $0.025
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runtime: $0.0075
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Vercel Sandbox: Snapshots $0.08 per GB-month. Drives $0.05 per GB-month in iad1, plus reads and writes. Hobby includes 15 GB of each.
Free tier
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Runtime: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Max session
Runtime: No limit
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Largest sandbox
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Runtime: Up to 200
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000
SDKs
Runtime: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Runtime: OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, MCP, Claude Code
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Runtime: $0.025
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Runtime: $0.0075
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Runtime: $0.000119 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Vercel Sandbox: Snapshots $0.08 per GB-month. Drives $0.05 per GB-month in iad1, plus reads and writes. Hobby includes 15 GB of each.
Free tier
Runtime: 100 hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Runtime: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Runtime: Active CPU time only
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Runtime: No limit
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
Runtime: After 5 minutes
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Runtime: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Runtime: Up to 200
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000

Platform

Isolation
Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Runtime: No
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Runtime:
Vercel Sandbox:
Pause and resume
Runtime:
Vercel Sandbox:

Developer

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

Trust

License
Runtime: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Runtime: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Runtime
Vercel Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Runtime: $0.040
Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Runtime: $0.080
Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Runtime: $0.160
Vercel Sandbox: $0.682

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Runtime fits when

  • A session must run longer than 24 hours.
  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.080 against $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Vercel Sandbox fits when

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

More comparisons

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