Which is better, AWS Lambda MicroVMs or Freestyle?
It depends on how your agent spends its time and how large its VM must be. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime has the lowest bill: $0.64 for 1,000 one-minute runs, against $4.20 on Lambda MicroVMs and $2.25 on Freestyle, because it bills measured CPU, not held vCPUs. Its pauses keep memory and processes, with no time limit. Pick Lambda MicroVMs for sandboxes inside your AWS account; pick Freestyle for VMs of up to 32 vCPUs that fork without pausing.
At a glance
| AWS Lambda MicroVMs | Freestyle | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM | Full Linux virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel |
| CPU | $0.0000276944 per baseline vCPU-second | $0.04032 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory | $0.0000036667 per GB-second, 2 GB per vCPU | $0.0129 per GiB-hour | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour |
| Largest | A 4 vCPU, 8 GB baseline | 32 vCPUs and 64 GiB on Pro | 16 vCPUs and 64 GiB, paid |
| How long | State kept up to 8 hours | Runs until stopped | No time limit: runs while it works, or persistent |
| Asleep | Snapshot at $0.08 per GB-month | Storage only | $0.08 per GB-month, memory kept while you have credit |
| Free start | None for MicroVMs | 200 vCPU-hours and 400 GiB-hours a month | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card |
Hours against weeks
The two sit at opposite ends of a sandbox's life. A MicroVM is built for bursts: it suspends after an idle time you set and its state lasts at most eight hours. A Freestyle VM is built to stay: it runs until you stop it and hibernates with its memory for weeks. Runtime spans both, with no time limit, a persistent sandbox that never idles out, and pauses kept while you have credit.
Cost for the same job
The benchmark, 60 seconds a run (a 4 GB baseline on Lambda, a 32 GiB disk on Freestyle):
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s × 2 × $0.0000276944
- $3.32
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000036667
- $0.88
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.04032
- $1.34
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0129
- $0.86
- Disk
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 32 × $0.000086
- $0.05
- CPU
- 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025
- $0.14
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075
- $0.50
For 100,000 runs a month: $420.33 on Lambda, $224.99 on Freestyle, $63.89 on Runtime. The two rivals charge the same whether the CPUs idle or work, so with both CPUs busy for the whole minute it is still $4.20 on Lambda and $2.25 on Freestyle, against $1.33 on Runtime.
Which one to pick
- Lambda MicroVMs for short bursts next to other AWS services.
- Freestyle for VMs that live for weeks and fork without pausing.
- Runtime for both patterns at the lowest price, and a sign-in an agent completes with one browser approval.
See Runtime vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs and Runtime vs Freestyle.
Runtime Cloud
Runtime runs the benchmark for 85% less than Lambda and 72% less than Freestyle. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox with 20 CPU-seconds of work each cost $4.20 on AWS Lambda MicroVMs, $2.25 on Freestyle and $0.64 on Runtime, whose meter counts CPU time used rather than cores held.
To try it, run npx withruntime login; each month brings 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine, no card. Code already on Lambda or Freestyle moves over with the migration guide.
Sources
Lambda and Freestyle rates checked 25 October 2026.
- AWS Lambda pricing, Lambda MicroVMs
- Freestyle pricing, Freestyle VM pricing and limits
- Runtime pricing
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.