# Blaxel vs Morph: pricing, isolation and limits Blaxel bills memory only while a sandbox is active; Morph bills a VM's size in MCUs. A 2 vCPU, 4 GB job: $2.76 on Blaxel, $1.67 on Morph. **Runtime runs the same job for 77% less than Blaxel and 62% less than Morph.** 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on Blaxel, $1.67 on Morph and $0.64 on Runtime, because Runtime bills the CPU your code uses and prices memory at $0.0075 per GiB-hour. Rates checked 23 September 2026. ## At a glance | | Blaxel | Morph | Runtime | | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Lightweight virtual machines | Full virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox | | How size is billed | $0.0000115 per GB of memory per active second | $0.05 per MCU-hour: 1 vCPU, 4 GB of memory or 16 GB disk | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | CPU | Set by memory: 8 GB gets 4 cores, 16 GB gets 6 | Chosen; each vCPU is an MCU | Chosen apart from memory | | 2 vCPU, 4 GB, an hour | $0.1656 while active | $0.10 (2 MCUs) | $0.03125 waiting, $0.08 fully busy | | Idle | Standby about 15 s after the last connection closes | Devboxes scale to zero when idle and keep memory | Pause keeps files, memory and processes, 1 to 365 days | | Paused storage | $0.20 per GB-month of snapshot | One MCU covers 5 TB snapshot-hours | $0.08 per GB-month | | Plan fee | None; tiers grow with credit added | Free with no credit; Developer $40 and Team $250 a month | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | Up to $200 of credit | No free credit; 1,000 MCUs come with Developer ($40) | 50 sandbox hours, no card | | At once | Tier 0 free: 10; $20 a month: 50; top tier: 100,000+ | Devboxes: 8 on Free, 32 on Developer, 128 on Team | 100 on a paid account to start; eight on the trial | ## Which one costs less when the sandbox sits idle? Both are built to stop charging for compute between bursts of work, in different ways. - **Blaxel** puts a sandbox on standby about 15 seconds after its last connection closes. Standby costs nothing for compute, only snapshot storage at $0.20 per GB-month, and Blaxel states a resume in under 25 ms. - **Morph** bills a machine's MCUs for as long as it runs. Its Devboxes scale to zero when idle and keep their memory, and snapshot storage is billed from the same MCU balance: one MCU covers 5 TB snapshot-hours. While active, Morph is the cheaper of the two for this size: $0.10 an hour for 2 MCUs against $0.1656 for 4 GB on Blaxel. Blaxel gives no separate price for CPU, but it also gives no choice of it: a sandbox gets the cores its memory size carries. Runtime pauses a sandbox after `idlePauseSeconds` with no request (60 to 86,400), keeps its memory and running processes, and wakes it on the next request, usually in about half a second. Paused storage is $0.08 per GB-month, under half of Blaxel's snapshot rate. ## Cost for the same job 1,000 runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox (4 GB on Blaxel, which sets CPU from memory; 2 MCUs on Morph). Each run lasts 60 seconds and keeps the CPU busy for 20 CPU-seconds: an agent that mostly waits for a model. ``` Blaxel Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000115 = $2.76 Morph Size 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05 = $1.67 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 Blaxel, $166.67 on Morph and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime against $2.76 on Blaxel and $1.67 on Morph, so Runtime is cheaper however busy the sandbox is. The Blaxel figure assumes standby the moment each run ends. Plan fees, included credit, storage, network and taxes are left out. ## Which one to pick - **Pick Blaxel** if your sandboxes sit idle between short bursts and you want them back in milliseconds, or you plan a very large fleet: its top tier runs over 100,000 at once. - **Pick Morph** for branching: its Infinibranch copies a running machine, memory included, to hundreds of parallel replicas, and its Free tier already allows machines up to 64 vCPUs and 256 GB of memory. - **Pick Runtime** for a Firecracker microVM on every sandbox for 62% less than Morph and 77% less than Blaxel, CPU and memory chosen apart, pause and [forks](/glossary/sandbox-fork) that keep memory and processes, and no plan fee. ## Switch from either one Runtime has no drop-in import for Blaxel or Morph, and the calls map directly ([map the calls](/docs/migrate#map-the-calls)). Blaxel's `SandboxInstance.create()` becomes `Sandbox.create()`, its `delete()` becomes `stop()`, and Blaxel standby becomes automatic wake, which is on by default. To pause when idle, as Blaxel and Morph Devboxes do: ```ts check import { Sandbox } from "withruntime"; const sbx = await Sandbox.create({ idlePauseSeconds: 600 }); // ten idle minutes await sbx.exec("echo state > /workspace/state.txt"); // The next exec or file call wakes it with its memory and processes. console.log((await sbx.exec("cat /workspace/state.txt")).stdout); await sbx.stop(); ``` ```python check from withruntime import Sandbox sbx = Sandbox.create(idle_pause_seconds=600) sbx.exec("echo state > /workspace/state.txt") print(sbx.exec("cat /workspace/state.txt").stdout) sbx.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 trial and reports the monthly saving. `npx withruntime compare --from blaxel` (or `--from morph`) prices what you ran at the old provider's rates. The full side-by-sides are [Runtime vs Blaxel](/docs/blaxel-alternative) and [Runtime vs Morph](/docs/morph-alternative); for idle handling see [pause and resume a sandbox](/how-to/pause-and-resume-a-sandbox). ## Sources Rates checked 23 September 2026. Blaxel and Morph pricing pages and Blaxel's sandbox documentation reread 25 September 2026. - [Blaxel pricing](https://blaxel.ai/pricing), [Blaxel sandboxes](https://docs.blaxel.ai/Sandboxes/Overview) - [Morph Cloud pricing](https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing), [Morph Devboxes](https://cloud.morph.so/web/product/devboxes) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) and [JavaScript SDK](/docs/javascript#pause-wake-extend) Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.