Shellbox vs Vercel Sandbox

Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

Vercel Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
5 CPU-hours every month
Max session
24 hours

What is different

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

Shellbox
Vercel Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Shellbox: $0.01
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Shellbox: Included
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
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.
Paid plan from
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Max session
Shellbox: No limit
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Largest sandbox
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Shellbox: Up to 16
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000
Integrations
Shellbox: 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
Shellbox: $0.01
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Shellbox: Included
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
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
Shellbox: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Shellbox: No limit
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Shellbox: Up to 16
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000

Platform

Isolation
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Shellbox: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Shellbox:
Vercel Sandbox:
Pause and resume
Shellbox:
Vercel Sandbox:

Developer

SDKs
Shellbox: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Shellbox: Claude Code
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, MCP

Trust

License
Shellbox: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Shellbox: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Shellbox
Vercel Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Shellbox: $0.010
Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Shellbox: $0.020
Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: $0.040
Vercel Sandbox: $0.682

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Shellbox 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: $0.020 against $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 8 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Vercel Sandbox fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or MCP.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR.

More comparisons

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