Smol Machines vs Vercel Sandbox
Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. Smol Machines runs microVMs. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.
Updated
Smol Machines
- Isolation
- MicroVM
- Free tier
- $100 credit, one time
- Max session
- Not listed
Vercel Sandbox
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM
- Free tier
- 5 CPU-hours every month
- Max session
- 24 hours
What is different
10 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.
Smol Machines
Vercel Sandbox
- vCPU, per hour
- Smol Machines: $0.05
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
- Storage
- Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
- Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
- Free tier
- Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
- Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
- Paid plan from
- Smol Machines: Pay as you go
- Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
- Largest sandbox
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
- Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000
- Isolation
- Smol Machines: MicroVM
- Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
- Snapshots
- Smol Machines: No
- Vercel Sandbox:
- SDKs
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
- Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Full comparison
18 fields, at each provider's list price
Smol Machinessmolmachines
Vercel Sandboxvercel
Pricing
- vCPU, per hour
- Smol Machines: $0.05
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
- Storage
- Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
- Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
- Free tier
- Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
- Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
- Paid plan from
- Smol Machines: Pay as you go
- Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
- Billing
- Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
- Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Limits
- Max session
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
- Idle stop
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
- Largest sandbox
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
- Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000
Platform
- Isolation
- Smol Machines: MicroVM
- Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
- GPU
- Smol Machines: No
- Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
- Snapshots
- Smol Machines: No
- Vercel Sandbox:
- Pause and resume
- Smol Machines:
- Vercel Sandbox:
Developer
- SDKs
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
- Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Integrations
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code
Trust
- License
- Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
- Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
- BYOC
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Hourly cost
One sandbox running for one hour
Smol Machines
Vercel Sandbox
- 1 vCPU · 2 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.082
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
- 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.165
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
- 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.330
- Vercel Sandbox: $0.682
Compute only, at list rates.
Open the calculatorWhich one fits
Based on the fields above
Smol Machines fits when
- You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
- You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
- You want the lower list price: $0.165 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 Claude Code.
- You need snapshots.
- You need SOC 2 Type II.
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