AWS Lambda MicroVMs vs Freestyle: VMs for agents, priced

Lambda MicroVMs bill a baseline by the second; Freestyle bills an allocation by the hour. The 2 vCPU, 4 GiB benchmark: $4.20 on Lambda, $2.25 on Freestyle.

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.

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	Leases extended as needed, or persistent
Asleep	Snapshot at $0.08 per GB-month, a week minimum	Storage only	$0.08 per GB-month, memory kept 1 to 365 days
Free start	None for MicroVMs	200 vCPU-hours and 400 GiB-hours a month	100 sandbox hours, 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 five quiet minutes 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 a lease you extend or a persistent sandbox, and pauses kept for up to a year.

Cost for the same job

The benchmark, 60 seconds a run (a 4 GB baseline on Lambda, a 32 GiB disk on Freestyle):

TextLambda    CPU    1,000 × 60 s × 2 × $0.0000276944              = $3.32          Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000036667              = $0.88          Total                                                  $4.20Freestyle 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          Total                                                  $2.25Runtime   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

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.

Sources

Lambda and Freestyle rates checked 25 September 2026.

• AWS Lambda pricing, Lambda MicroVMs
• Freestyle pricing, Freestyle VM pricing and limits
• Runtime pricing

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.