Blaxel vs Runloop Blaxel is 35% cheaper per agent run

Which is better, Blaxel or Runloop?

It depends on whether you need a fast resume or evaluation tooling. For agents that wait on a model, Runtime costs the least: $0.64 for 1,000 one-minute runs, against $3.45 on Blaxel and $5.33 on Runloop. Runtime gives each sandbox its own microVM. Its pause keeps memory and processes, and no plan is needed. Pick Blaxel for a resume in under 25 ms or a fleet above 100,000 sandboxes running at the same time. Pick Runloop for SWE-Bench and custom suites run for you, or for devboxes in your own cloud.

At a glance

Which one keeps a process running across a pause?

This is where the two differ most for an agent that works in bursts.

• Blaxel moves a sandbox to standby about 15 seconds after its last connection closes. It keeps the files and processes there. Blaxel states a resume in under 25 ms, and it charges no compute while on standby.
• Runloop writes a suspended devbox to disk and nothing more. Whatever was running, such as a dev server, a REPL or a tool call halfway through, must start again after resume. Runloop lists suspend and resume under its Pro plan, $250 a month.

Runtime keeps memory and running processes on every pause, with no plan needed, while you have credit on a paid account at $0.08 per GB-month. A request to a paused sandbox wakes it by itself. A fork copies a running sandbox with its memory, 1 to 100 copies at the same time.

Cost for the same job

The job: 1,000 runs, 60 seconds each, 20 CPU-seconds of work, on 2 vCPU with 4 GiB. Blaxel sets CPU from memory, so it is sized at 4 GB. Runloop's MEDIUM devbox matches with 2 CPUs and 4 GB, and brings 8 GB of disk.

A month of 100,000 runs costs $345.00 on Blaxel, $532.56 on Runloop and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime, $3.45 on Blaxel and $5.33 on Runloop. Blaxel's number includes the 15 seconds or so each sandbox stays billed after its run, before standby. Plan fees, idle storage, network, taxes and free credit are not included.

Which one to pick

Runtime's price here is 81% below Blaxel's and 88% below Runloop's. It runs benchmarks too. See agent evals and SWE-bench.

Moving a paused workflow over

From Blaxel, change one import: withruntime/blaxel for @blaxel/core, or withruntime.blaxel for blaxel.core in Python. Standby is covered by automatic wake, which is on by default. Runloop has no compatibility import, so its port follows map the calls. Suspend and resume are pause() and wake(). The difference is that the processes survive:

TypeScriptimport { Sandbox } from "withruntime";const sbx = await Sandbox.create({ timeoutSeconds: 600 });await sbx.spawn("python3 -m http.server 8000", { cwd: "/workspace" });await sbx.pause(); // memory and files are kept; compute billing stopsconst again = await Sandbox.connect(sbx.id);await again.wake({ timeoutSeconds: 1200 }); // the server is still runningawait again.stop();

Pythonfrom withruntime import Sandboxsbx = Sandbox.create(timeout_seconds=600)sbx.spawn("python3 -m http.server 8000", cwd="/workspace")sbx.pause()  # memory and files are kept; compute billing stopsagain = Sandbox.connect(sbx.id)again.wake(timeout_seconds=1200)  # the server is still runningagain.stop()

Before changing anything, run npx withruntime compare --from runloop or --from blaxel. It reprices your recent usage at Runtime's rates. A coding agent can then run the one migration instruction. It ports the project on a branch and tests it on free usage. From Blaxel, credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. More: Runtime vs Blaxel, Runtime vs Runloop.

Sources

Runloop rates checked 25 October 2026, and its pricing page and devbox sizes reread 26 October 2026. Blaxel rates checked 25 October 2026, with its pricing page and sandbox documentation.

• Blaxel pricing, Blaxel sandboxes
• Runloop pricing, Devbox sizes, Devbox lifecycle
• Runtime pricing and JavaScript SDK

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.