Blaxel vs CodeSandbox pricing, standby and limits

Which is better, Blaxel or CodeSandbox?

It depends on how fast idle sandboxes must return and how big the machines are. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime has the lowest cost of the three: $0.64 per 1,000 one-minute runs, against $3.45 on Blaxel and $2.48 on CodeSandbox. It bills measured CPU by the second and keeps memory through every pause. Pick Blaxel for a resume under 25 ms or a fleet of over 100,000 sandboxes running at the same time. Pick CodeSandbox for fixed VMs up to 64 cores, or 250 VMs on its Scale plan.

At a glance

CodeSandbox's figures come from Together's documentation of the CodeSandbox SDK. CodeSandbox is a Together company.

Which one scales to zero better?

Both stop billing compute when nobody is connected. They differ in how fast they do it and how finely they bill.

Blaxel is the quicker of the two. A sandbox goes to standby about 15 seconds after its last connection closes. Blaxel snapshots its filesystem and running processes. Reconnecting resumes it in under 25 ms, by Blaxel's account. Its standby snapshots cost $0.20 per GB a month. Connections the sandbox held to outside services time out. Blaxel keeps the writable filesystem in memory, which uses about half of the sandbox's memory.

CodeSandbox hibernates on disconnect. In Together's words, it resumes or clones a VM from a memory snapshot in three seconds. It bills in whole minutes, rounded up. So a VM that runs for 10 seconds pays for a minute.

Runtime pauses by itself. A sandbox pauses after 300 seconds with nothing happening in it. Or it pauses after the idlePauseSeconds you set, from 60 to 86,400. It keeps files, memory and processes. Paused storage is $0.08 per GB a month, kept while you have credit.

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. On CodeSandbox, that is a Nano VM, 10 credits an hour at $0.01486 a credit.

At 100,000 runs a month, that is $345.00 on Blaxel, $247.67 on CodeSandbox and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime against $3.45 on Blaxel and $2.48 on CodeSandbox. Runtime is cheaper however busy the sandbox is. Neither rival's price moves with the CPU. The Blaxel figure includes the 15 seconds or so each sandbox stays billed after its run, before standby. Plan fees, storage, network and free credits are left out.

Which one to pick

• Pick Blaxel for sandboxes that must come back in milliseconds with their processes running, or for very large fleets. Its top tier runs over 100,000 sandboxes at the same time.
• Pick CodeSandbox for large fixed VMs, up to 64 cores and 128 GB, or for 250 VMs running at the same time on its Scale plan.
• Pick Runtime for the lowest cost of the three, with vCPUs and memory chosen separately, per-second billing, and a pause kept for as long as you choose.

Switch from either one

Blaxel code keeps its calls after one import: withruntime/blaxel for @blaxel/core (Python withruntime.blaxel). Standby and hibernation become an idle pause. Automatic wake is on by default, so the next request brings the sandbox back:

TypeScriptimport { Sandbox } from "withruntime";const sbx = await Sandbox.create({ idlePauseSeconds: 60 });await sbx.exec("echo ready > /workspace/state.txt");// Idle for a minute, it pauses; this call wakes it and then runs.console.log((await sbx.exec("cat /workspace/state.txt")).stdout);await sbx.stop();

Or give your coding agent the one instruction in migration. It switches the project on a branch, tests it on free usage, and reports the monthly saving. npx withruntime compare --from blaxel (or --from codesandbox) prices what you ran at the old provider's rates. The full side-by-sides are Runtime vs Blaxel and Runtime vs CodeSandbox. From Blaxel, credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total.

Sources

CodeSandbox rates checked 25 October 2026 and the Together page read 26 October 2026. Blaxel rates checked 25 October 2026, with its pricing page and sandbox documentation.

• Blaxel pricing, Blaxel sandboxes
• Together: CodeSandbox SDK, CodeSandbox SDK pricing
• Runtime pricing and JavaScript SDK

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.