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Vercel Sandbox vs Blaxel
Blaxel is cheaper: about $0.17 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, against $0.34 on Vercel Sandbox with the CPU busy all hour (Vercel Sandbox bills CPU only while it is busy, so idle time costs less there). Blaxel was faster on a real coding-agent build: 53.0 s against 83.4 s.
At a glance
| Vercel Sandbox | Blaxel | |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM | MicroVM, no shared kernel |
| Price | CPU is billed only while busy ($0.128 per active CPU-hour); memory is billed for the whole time ($0.0212 per GB-hour). iad1 region rates; $0.60 per million creations. | $0.0000115 per GB of memory per second, with CPU included and scaled to memory (calc). Standby is free; snapshots cost $0.20 per GB-month. |
| 2 vCPU, 4 GiB for an hour | $0.34 if the CPU is busy all hour | $0.17 |
| Free tier | Hobby includes 5 active CPU-hours, 420 GB-hours and 5,000 creations a month. Pro uses its $20 monthly credit first. | Up to $200 of credits on pay-as-you-go. |
| Longest session | 45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise. Persistent sandboxes can resume. | No default expiry. 7 days on Tier 0, 30 days on Tier 1, no limit on higher tiers. |
| Largest sandbox | 4 vCPU, 8 GB on Hobby; 8 vCPU, 16 GB on Pro; 32 vCPU, 64 GB on Enterprise | Not published on standard plans (examples: 8 GB gets 4 cores, 16 GB gets 6 cores) |
| Pause and persistence | Persistent by default, saved on stop; snapshots expire after 30 days by default. | Standby keeps memory and files and resumes in about 25 ms; archive keeps files only. |
| Start time (published) | "Starts in milliseconds"; no number published. | Fresh microVM in under a second; resume in about 25 ms. |
| GPUs | No | Not stated |
| Self-hosting | No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted. | No full self-hosting. Bring-your-own-metal is available, but Blaxel always runs the control plane. |
| SDKs | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python | TypeScript, Python, Go |
| Real build benchmark | 7 of 7 phases, 83.4 s | 7 of 7 phases, 53.0 s |
On a real coding-agent build
The open-source ComputeSDK sandbox-dax benchmark runs OpenCode's provider benchmark in each sandbox: install packages and Bun, clone OpenCode, bun install, then bun typecheck. Results from the run of 30 October 2026:
- Vercel Sandbox completed all seven phases in 83.4 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 1.8 s, install 23.2 s, typecheck 40.1 s.
- Blaxel completed all seven phases in 53.0 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 6.1 s, install 12.4 s, typecheck 25.3 s.
Each provider is one run, and sandboxes report different CPU counts, so treat small gaps as noise. For what this build needs from a sandbox, and what isolation costs, see our benchmark write-up.
Which should you choose?
Choose Blaxel if
- price per hour matters most
- your agents run heavy builds and speed matters
- your agents run for longer than 24 hours
- you need pause and resume that keeps memory, not just files
If neither fits because your code and API keys must stay on your own hardware, Hotcell runs sandboxes on machines you control, and Directionally Local sets it up with the Autopilot coding agent harness in one command. More options: E2B alternatives.
More comparisons
- E2B vs Vercel Sandbox
- E2B vs Blaxel
- Modal vs Vercel Sandbox
- Modal vs Blaxel
- Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox
- Daytona vs Blaxel
Sources
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox pricing
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox docs
- Blaxel: Blaxel pricing
- Blaxel: Blaxel sandbox docs
- Benchmark: ComputeSDK sandbox-dax results
Prices change often. We check them by hand and the benchmark refreshes on every build; if something here is out of date, tell us.
FAQs
Is Vercel Sandbox cheaper than Blaxel?
Blaxel is cheaper. A sandbox with 2 vCPU and 4 GiB running for an hour costs about $0.17 there, against $0.34 on Vercel Sandbox. Vercel Sandbox bills CPU only while it is busy, so idle sandboxes cost less there than this suggests.
Which is faster, Vercel Sandbox or Blaxel?
Vercel Sandbox completed all seven phases in 83.4 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 1.8 s, install 23.2 s, typecheck 40.1 s. Blaxel completed all seven phases in 53.0 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 6.1 s, install 12.4 s, typecheck 25.3 s. The workload is OpenCode's provider benchmark: clone, bun install and typecheck. Results are from ComputeSDK's run of 30 October 2026, one run each.
Which has stronger isolation, Vercel Sandbox or Blaxel?
Both use a microVM with its own kernel by default. Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM. Blaxel: MicroVM, no shared kernel.
Can I self-host Vercel Sandbox or Blaxel?
Vercel Sandbox: No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted. Blaxel: No full self-hosting. Bring-your-own-metal is available, but Blaxel always runs the control plane.
Is there an alternative to Vercel Sandbox and Blaxel that runs on my own hardware?
Yes. Hotcell is an open-source sandbox runtime (Apache-2.0) that runs Docker containers, Firecracker microVMs or Apple Virtualization microVMs on your own machines. Real API keys stay on the host, and each sandbox gets a short-lived, spend-capped token. Directionally Local sets it up together with the Autopilot coding agent harness with one command.