SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes vs Thunder Sandboxes

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Thunder Sandboxes costs $0.051 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs. Thunder Sandboxes runs Firecracker microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit.

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

Thunder Sandboxes

Isolated, short-lived sandboxes for agents, GPU optional.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: No limit

Visit site Thunder Sandboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.051
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.016
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.00012 per GiB-hour
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Thunder Sandboxes: Per second
Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Thunder Sandboxes: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Thunder Sandboxesthundercompute.com/pricingthundercompute.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.051
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.016
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.00012 per GiB-hour
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Paid plan from: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Thunder Sandboxes: Per second

Limits

Max session: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes: No limit
Idle stop: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Thunder Sandboxes: Firecracker microVM
GPU: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes:
Snapshots: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Pause and resume: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed

Developer

SDKs: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes: Python
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Thunder Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.083
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.166
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.332

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

Thunder Sandboxes fits when

You need GPUs.
You want the lower list price: $0.166 against $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

More comparisons

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SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

Thunder Sandboxes fits when

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