Smol Machines vs Tenki Sandbox

Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour and Tenki Sandbox costs $0.0504 per vCPU-hour. Smol Machines runs microVMs. Tenki Sandbox runs full VMs.

Updated

Smol Machines

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

Tenki Sandbox

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
$100 credit, one time
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Smol Machines
Tenki Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Smol Machines: $0.05
Tenki Sandbox: $0.0504
Storage
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Tenki Sandbox: $0.000108 per GiB-hour after 5 free GiB
Paid plan from
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Tenki Sandbox: $200 / month
Billing
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Tenki Sandbox: Per second
Largest sandbox
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Tenki Sandbox: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
Tenki Sandbox: Up to 100
Isolation
Smol Machines: MicroVM
Tenki Sandbox: Full VM
Snapshots
Smol Machines: No
Tenki Sandbox:
SDKs
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Tenki Sandbox: Python, TypeScript, Go

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Smol Machines: $0.05
Tenki Sandbox: $0.0504
RAM, per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Tenki Sandbox: $0.0162
Storage
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Tenki Sandbox: $0.000108 per GiB-hour after 5 free GiB
Free tier
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Tenki Sandbox: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Tenki Sandbox: $200 / month
Billing
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Tenki Sandbox: Per second

Limits

Max session
Smol Machines: Not listed
Tenki Sandbox: Not listed
Idle stop
Smol Machines: Not listed
Tenki Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Tenki Sandbox: 16 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
Tenki Sandbox: Up to 100

Platform

Isolation
Smol Machines: MicroVM
Tenki Sandbox: Full VM
GPU
Smol Machines: No
Tenki Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Smol Machines: No
Tenki Sandbox:
Pause and resume
Smol Machines:
Tenki Sandbox:

Developer

SDKs
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Tenki Sandbox: Python, TypeScript, Go
Integrations
Smol Machines: Not listed
Tenki Sandbox: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
Tenki Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Smol Machines: Not listed
Tenki Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Smol Machines
Tenki Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.082
Tenki Sandbox: $0.083
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.165
Tenki Sandbox: $0.166
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.330
Tenki Sandbox: $0.331

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Smol Machines fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.166 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Tenki Sandbox fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use MCP or Claude Code.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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