# Daytona vs Blaxel: Daytona is 20% cheaper per agent run Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) costs 77% less than Daytona; Blaxel matches its hourly rate but bills idle seconds. ## Which is better, Daytona or Blaxel? It depends on whether you need GPUs or instant resume. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime has the lowest bill: $0.64 for 1,000 one-minute runs, against $2.76 on Daytona and $3.45 on Blaxel, and a pause keeps memory and processes for up to a year. Pick Daytona for GPU sandboxes or Windows machines; pick Blaxel for a resume in milliseconds or fleets over 100,000 concurrent sandboxes on its top tier. ## At a glance | | Daytona | Blaxel | Runtime | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | Lightweight virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox | | CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | Included with memory; 8 GB gets 4 cores | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | $0.0000115 per GB-second of active time ($0.0414/h) | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Billing unit | Per second | Per second of active time | Per second | | Idle behaviour | Stops after 15 idle minutes by default | Standby about 15 seconds after connections close | Pause keeps files, memory and processes while you have credit | | Keeping idle work | Disk past 5 GiB at $0.000108 per GiB-hour | Standby snapshot $0.20 per GB-month | Paused storage $0.08 per GB-month | | Free start | $200 of compute | Up to $200 of credit; 10 concurrent sandboxes on Tier 0 | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card | | Plan fee | None published | None; tiers grow with credit added ($20 for Tier 1) | None; prepaid credit from $10 | ## Why do Daytona and Blaxel charge the same an hour? It is a coincidence of the rates at this size. Daytona charges two meters: two vCPUs at $0.0504 an hour and 4 GiB at $0.0162, $0.1656 an hour together. Blaxel charges one: 4 GB of memory at $0.0414 an hour, $0.1656 an hour, with the CPU set by the memory. Change the shape and they part. A sandbox that needs 4 cores pays for 8 GB on Blaxel to get them, even if it uses 4 GB; on Daytona, CPU and memory are separate meters. The real difference is what an idle sandbox costs. Blaxel moves a sandbox to standby about 15 seconds after its last connection closes, charges nothing for compute there, and resumes it in about 25 ms. Those 15 seconds are billed, so a one-minute run costs a quarter more on Blaxel than its hourly price suggests. Daytona keeps billing a running sandbox until it is stopped, 15 idle minutes by default. Runtime charges measured CPU, so the time an agent spends waiting on a model costs only a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU, and memory is chosen apart from vCPUs. ## Cost for the same job 1,000 runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox (4 GB on Blaxel). Each run lasts 60 seconds and keeps the CPU busy for 20 CPU-seconds: an agent that mostly waits for a model. ``` Daytona CPU 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504 = $1.68 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162 = $1.08 Total $2.76 Blaxel Memory 1,000 × 75 s × 4 × $0.0000115 = $3.45 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 ``` At 100,000 runs a month that is $276.00 on Daytona, $345.00 on Blaxel and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime against $2.76 on Daytona and $3.45 on Blaxel, so Runtime is cheaper however busy the sandbox is. The Blaxel figure includes the 15 seconds or so each sandbox stays billed after its run, before standby. Disk, snapshots, network and free credits are left out. ## What happens between an agent's turns? This decides the bill more than the rates do for an agent that works in bursts. - **Daytona:** the sandbox runs, and bills, until it is stopped or has been idle for 15 minutes. On its VM class, a pause keeps files and memory. - **Blaxel:** the sandbox drops to standby on its own and costs only snapshot storage, $0.20 per GB a month, until the next request. - **Runtime:** set `idlePauseSeconds` and the sandbox pauses with its files, memory and running processes; the next request wakes it. Paused storage costs $0.08 per GB a month. ```ts check import { Sandbox } from "withruntime"; const sbx = await Sandbox.create({ idlePauseSeconds: 600 }); // ten idle minutes await sbx.update({ idlePauseSeconds: 1800 }); // change it later; 0 turns it off ``` See [how to pause and resume a sandbox](/how-to/pause-and-resume-a-sandbox). ## Which one to pick - **Pick Daytona** if you need GPU sandboxes or Windows machines. - **Pick Blaxel** for sandboxes that go to standby by themselves and resume in milliseconds, or for very large fleets: its top tier runs over 100,000 concurrent sandboxes. - **Pick Runtime** for a microVM on every sandbox at over 75% below either price, measured CPU with memory chosen separately, and pause that keeps memory and processes for up to a year. ## Switch from either one From Daytona, Runtime's SDK runs your code after one import change: ```ts no-run import { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk" ``` ```python no-run from withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import Daytona ``` Blaxel code needs one import too, `withruntime/blaxel` in place of `@blaxel/core` (Python `withruntime.blaxel` in place of `blaxel.core`); its standby becomes a pause with automatic wake. To port to Runtime's own calls instead, create becomes `Sandbox.create()` and a process becomes `exec`; the [migration table](/docs/migrate#map-the-calls) lists each call. ```ts import { Sandbox } from "withruntime"; const box = await Sandbox.create(); try { await box.files.write("/workspace/invoice.py", "print(sum([125, 250, 375]))\n"); console.log((await box.exec("python3 /workspace/invoice.py", { check: true })).stdout); } finally { await box.stop(); } ``` Or give your coding agent the one instruction in [migration](/docs/migrate): it switches the project on a branch, tests it on the free usage and reports the monthly saving. `npx withruntime compare --from blaxel` prices the sandboxes you ran at Blaxel's published rates. Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. The full side-by-sides are [Runtime vs Daytona](/docs/daytona-alternative) and [Runtime vs Blaxel](/docs/blaxel-alternative). ## Runtime Cloud Runtime runs the same job for 77% less than Daytona and 81% less than Blaxel. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on Daytona, $3.45 on Blaxel and $0.64 on Runtime, because Runtime bills the CPU your code uses and charges memory at over 50% below either rival's rate. Every Runtime sandbox is a Firecracker microVM with its own kernel. Rates checked 25 October 2026. Try the drop-in on the free usage: `npx withruntime login` creates the account, and the [migration guide](/docs/migrate) takes a Daytona or Blaxel project the rest of the way. ## Sources Daytona rates checked 25 October 2026 and its pricing page rechecked 25 October 2026. Blaxel rates checked 25 October 2026, with its pricing page and sandbox documentation. - [Daytona pricing](https://www.daytona.io/pricing), [Daytona sandboxes](https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/sandboxes) - [Blaxel pricing](https://blaxel.ai/pricing), [Blaxel sandboxes](https://docs.blaxel.ai/Sandboxes/Overview) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.