SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes vs Smol Machines

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Isolated microVMs for AI agents that fork from a saved snapshot, part of SF Compute Autoresearch.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: None
Max session: Not listed

Visit site SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes profile

Smol Machines

Hosted Linux microVMs with their own kernel, for agents and untrusted code.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $100 credit, one time
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Smol Machines profile

What is different

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

Field

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Smol Machines

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Smol Machines: MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Smol Machinessmolmachines.com/pricingsmolmachines.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go; Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: No
Snapshots: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Smol Machines:
Pause and resume: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Smol Machines: MCP

Trust

License: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Smol Machines

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091; Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183; Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366; Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You use Claude Code.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

Smol Machines fits when

You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You want to start without paying.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Smol Machines

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

Smol Machines fits when

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