# Blaxel vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs: standby against suspend

Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) bills 81% less than Blaxel. Blaxel charges for active memory. Lambda charges for a baseline.

## Which is better, Blaxel or AWS Lambda MicroVMs?

It depends on how long your sandboxes sit idle and where they must run. For an agent that spends most of a run waiting on a model, Runtime has the lowest cost: $0.64 against $3.45 on Blaxel and $4.20 on Lambda. Runtime charges for CPU used, not for vCPUs held, and a pause keeps memory and processes. Pick Blaxel when sandboxes must resume in about 25 ms. Pick Lambda MicroVMs when the work is tied to an AWS account.

## At a glance

|             | Blaxel                                                         | AWS Lambda MicroVMs                                            | Runtime                                                        |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Isolation   | Lightweight virtual machines                                   | Firecracker microVM                                            | Firecracker microVM, own kernel                                |
| CPU         | Included with memory; 8 GB gets 4 cores                        | $0.0997 per baseline vCPU-hour        | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory      | $0.0000115 per GB-second of active time | $0.0000036667 per GB-second      | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour                          |
| Idle        | Standby when connections close; resumes in ~25 ms              | Suspends after an idle time you set                            | Pause, or idle pause, keeps memory while you have credit       |
| Kept asleep | $0.20 per GB-month snapshot                 | $0.08 per GB-month, a week minimum | $0.08 per GB-month                           |
| Free start  | Up to $200 of credit                         | No free tier                                                   | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card             |

## How each stops the meter

Blaxel puts a sandbox on standby immediately after its connections close. It
bills nothing for compute in standby. Lambda suspends after an idle time you
set with `maxIdleDurationSeconds`. Runtime pauses on request, or by itself after 300 seconds with
nothing happening in it (`idlePauseSeconds` sets the wait). It wakes on the
next command or visit.

## Cost for the same job

The benchmark runs 60 seconds a run, with 4 GB of active memory on Blaxel and a
4 GB baseline on Lambda:

```
Blaxel   Memory 1,000 × 75 s × 4 × $0.0000115                 = $3.45

Lambda   CPU    1,000 × 60 s × 2 × $0.0000276944              = $3.32
         Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000036667              = $0.88
         Total                                                  $4.20

Runtime  CPU    1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025                = $0.14
         Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075           = $0.50
         Total                                                  $0.64
```

Neither rival meters CPU use. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, the cost is still $3.45 on Blaxel and $4.20 on Lambda, against $1.33 on Runtime.

## Which one to pick

- **Blaxel** for sandboxes that sit idle most of the time and must resume in
  milliseconds.
- **Lambda MicroVMs** for work tied to an AWS account.
- **Runtime** for the lowest running cost, with CPU and memory chosen
  separately, and cheaper storage while paused.

See [Runtime vs Blaxel](/docs/blaxel-alternative) and
[Runtime vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs](/docs/aws-lambda-microvms-alternative).

## Runtime Cloud

Runtime costs 81% less than Blaxel and 85% less than Lambda MicroVMs.
For 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox using 20 CPU-seconds
each, Blaxel costs $3.45, AWS Lambda MicroVMs cost $4.20, and Runtime costs $0.64.

Start on 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine a month with `npx withruntime login`. Port existing Blaxel or Lambda code with the [migration guide](/docs/migrate).

## Sources

Blaxel rates checked 25 October 2026; Lambda MicroVMs rates checked 25 October 2026.

- [Blaxel pricing](https://blaxel.ai/pricing), [Blaxel sandboxes](https://docs.blaxel.ai/Sandboxes/Overview)
- [AWS Lambda pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/pricing/), [Lambda MicroVMs](https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/lambda-microvms/)
- Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing)

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.