Sandbox as a Service vs SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Sandbox as a Service costs $0.045 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Sandbox as a Service runs full VMs and limits a session to 24 hours. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs.

Updated

Sandbox as a Service

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
$5 credit
Max session
24 hours

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
None
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Sandbox as a Service
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes
vCPU, per hour
Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour
Sandbox as a Service: Included
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Free tier
Sandbox as a Service: $5 credit
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Billing
Sandbox as a Service: Bundled machine time
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only
Largest sandbox
Sandbox as a Service: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Sandbox as a Service: Up to 20
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096
Isolation
Sandbox as a Service: Full VM
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
Integrations
Sandbox as a Service: MCP
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour
Sandbox as a Service: Included
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Free tier
Sandbox as a Service: $5 credit
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Paid plan from
Sandbox as a Service: Pay as you go
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing
Sandbox as a Service: Bundled machine time
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only

Limits

Max session
Sandbox as a Service: 24 hours
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Idle stop
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Sandbox as a Service: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Sandbox as a Service: Up to 20
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096

Platform

Isolation
Sandbox as a Service: Full VM
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
GPU
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Snapshots
Sandbox as a Service:
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:
Pause and resume
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:

Developer

SDKs
Sandbox as a Service: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Integrations
Sandbox as a Service: MCP
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC
Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Sandbox as a Service
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Sandbox as a Service: $0.090
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Sandbox as a Service: $0.180
SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Sandbox as a Service fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.090 against $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 4 vCPU · 8 GiB.

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You use Claude Code.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

More comparisons

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