# E2B vs Vercel Sandbox: Vercel 23% cheaper if agents wait, E2B 51% if busy Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) meters CPU like Vercel at 70% less; Vercel beats E2B when agents mostly wait. ## Which is better, E2B or Vercel Sandbox? It depends on CPU use per run and where your app lives. Runtime meters CPU by use as Vercel does, at a lower rate, so an agent that waits on a model costs $0.64 for this job, against $2.12 on Vercel and $2.76 on E2B. Its port URLs are private by default. Pick E2B for self-hosting under Apache-2.0 or paused sandboxes with no expiry. Pick Vercel Sandbox for an app already on Vercel, 19 regions, or up to 10,000 concurrent sandboxes on Pro. ## At a glance Vercel is priced in `iad1`, its default region. | | E2B | Vercel Sandbox | Runtime | | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | | CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.128 per active CPU-hour | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | $0.0212 per provisioned GB-hour | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Plan fee | Hobby $0; Pro $150 per month | Hobby allowance free; usage beyond it needs Pro | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | $100 of usage credit, once | 5 active CPU-hours and 420 GB-hours per month on Hobby | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card | | Session length | 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro | 45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro | No time limit: runs while it works, pauses itself after 300 seconds idle | | Pause or stop | Keeps files, memory and processes | Stop keeps the filesystem; processes start again | Pause keeps files, memory and processes | | Agent sign-in | API key | Vercel project and token | Browser approval; no key in the agent's config | ## Which is cheaper, E2B or Vercel Sandbox? That depends on the workload, because they meter the opposite way. E2B charges $0.0504 an hour for every vCPU it allocates, from the moment the sandbox starts until it ends. Vercel charges $0.128 an hour, but only for CPU time the code actually consumes, so seconds spent waiting on a model call are free. - **Mostly waiting** (20 CPU-seconds in a one-minute run): Vercel, $2.12 against $2.76 for 1,000 runs. - **Mostly computing** (both CPUs busy all minute): E2B, $2.76 against $5.68. Runtime meters like Vercel, with a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU, at $0.025 a vCPU-hour, so it is the lowest at both extremes. ## Cost for the same job The waiting case in detail: 1,000 runs, each 60 seconds on 2 vCPU with 4 GiB (Vercel sells 2 GB per vCPU, so 4 GB), with 20 CPU-seconds of work per run. ``` E2B 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 Vercel CPU 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.128 = $0.71 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0212 = $1.41 Total $2.12 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 per month, E2B bills $276.00, Vercel $212.44 and Runtime $63.89. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute the job is $1.33 on Runtime, $2.76 on E2B and $5.68 on Vercel. Plan fees, creation charges, disk, network and free allowances are not in these totals. ## What survives a stop? A paused E2B sandbox keeps its files, memory and running processes, with no expiry. A stopped Vercel sandbox keeps its filesystem, and its processes start again; Vercel's snapshots and forks capture the filesystem too. A paused Runtime sandbox keeps files, memory and running processes while you have credit, and a [fork](/glossary/sandbox-fork) copies a running sandbox with its memory. See [how to pause and resume a sandbox](/how-to/pause-and-resume-a-sandbox). ## Which one to pick - **E2B**, for CPU-heavy work at a flat allocated rate, paused sandboxes kept with no expiry, or a runtime you can self-host under Apache-2.0. - **Vercel Sandbox**, for an app that already runs on Vercel, or sandboxes spread over many places: 19 regions and up to 10,000 concurrent sandboxes on Pro. - **Runtime**, for CPU metered by use at 80% below Vercel's rate, pause and forks that keep memory, port URLs that are private by default, and no plan fee. ## Runtime Cloud Same Firecracker isolation on all three, and Runtime is 77% cheaper than E2B and 70% cheaper than Vercel on the same job. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on E2B, $2.12 on Vercel and $0.64 on Runtime. Runtime meters CPU as Vercel does, at 80% below Vercel's CPU rate, and its memory is cheaper than either rival's. Rates checked 25 October 2026. Sign in with `npx withruntime login` to try it on the free usage. E2B and Vercel Sandbox code each have a compatibility import in the [migration guide](/docs/migrate). ## Moving to Runtime Both SDKs have a compatibility import on Runtime: ```ts no-run import { Sandbox } from "withruntime/e2b"; // was: from "e2b" import { Sandbox as VercelSandbox } from "withruntime/vercel"; // was: from "@vercel/sandbox" ``` ```python no-run from withruntime.e2b import Sandbox # was: from e2b import Sandbox from withruntime.vercel import sandbox # was: from vercel import sandbox ``` Vercel code then runs without a Vercel project or token, and its `stop()` becomes a pause. Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. A coding agent can carry out the change from the one instruction in [migration](/docs/migrate), on a branch, on the free usage. Full detail: [Runtime vs E2B](/docs/e2b-alternative), [Runtime vs Vercel Sandbox](/docs/vercel-sandbox-alternative). ## Sources E2B and Vercel pricing pages rechecked 25 October 2026; the rest checked 25 October 2026. - [E2B pricing](https://e2b.dev/pricing), [E2B sandbox persistence](https://docs.e2b.dev/sandbox/persistence) - [Vercel Sandbox pricing](https://vercel.com/docs/sandbox/pricing), [Understanding Vercel Sandboxes](https://vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.