Cloudflare Sandbox vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs: edge containers or Firecracker

Cloudflare bills active CPU for a container in its own VM; Lambda MicroVMs bill a Firecracker baseline. The 2 vCPU benchmark is $1.35 against $4.20.

Runtime costs 53% less than Cloudflare and 85% less than Lambda MicroVMs. The benchmark, 1,000 runs of a minute on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB doing 20 CPU-seconds each, comes to $1.35 on Cloudflare Sandbox (priced at 6 GiB, its minimum for two vCPUs), $4.20 on AWS Lambda MicroVMs and $0.64 on Runtime.

Estimated compute cost

53% less than Cloudflare Sandbox85% less than AWS Lambda MicroVMs

2 vCPUs · 4 GiB · 60 s a run · 20 CPU-seconds busy

Runs1,000

Compute only, at list rates checked 23 September 2026 and 25 September 2026 (Cloudflare Containers pricing, AWS Lambda pricing). Plan fees, network, taxes and free credits are left out. The worked example below shows the arithmetic.

At a glance

	Cloudflare Sandbox	AWS Lambda MicroVMs	Runtime
Isolation	A container in its own VM	Firecracker microVM	Firecracker microVM, own kernel
CPU	$0.072 per active vCPU-hour, 10 ms steps	$0.0997 per baseline vCPU-hour	$0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor
Memory	$0.009 per provisioned GiB-hour, 3 GiB per vCPU at least	$0.0132 per GB-hour, 2 GB per vCPU	$0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour
Sizes	Up to 4 vCPUs, 12 GiB and 20 GB	A 4 vCPU, 8 GB baseline	16 vCPUs and 64 GiB, paid
Idle	Sleeps after 10 idle minutes; files are lost	Suspends after 5 idle minutes, up to 8 hours	Pause keeps memory, 1 to 365 days
Driven from	A Cloudflare Worker	The AWS API	API, CLI, SDKs or MCP

Two platforms' answers

Each is the sandbox of a larger cloud and fits best inside it: Cloudflare's runs from a Worker, near users, and bills only active CPU; Lambda's lives with IAM and VPCs, and bills its baseline. Both shape memory to CPU, at least 3 GiB per vCPU on Cloudflare and exactly 2 GB on Lambda. Runtime lets memory and CPU be chosen apart.

Cost for the same job

The benchmark, 60 seconds a run (6 GiB and a 12 GB disk on Cloudflare, a 4 GB baseline on Lambda):

TextCloudflare  CPU    1,000 × 20 s × $0.000020                     = $0.40            Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 6 × $0.0000025                = $0.90            Disk   1,000 × 60 s × 12 × $0.00000007              = $0.05            Total                                                  $1.35Lambda      CPU    1,000 × 60 s × 2 × $0.0000276944              = $3.32            Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000036667              = $0.88            Total                                                  $4.20Runtime     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

With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, the job costs $3.35 on Cloudflare, $4.20 on Lambda and $1.33 on Runtime.

Which one to pick

Cloudflare Sandbox for apps already on Workers that want sandboxes near their users.
Lambda MicroVMs for work that must stay inside AWS.
Runtime for the lowest bill whether the code waits or works, and files and memory that survive a pause.

See Runtime vs Cloudflare Sandbox and Runtime vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs.

Sources

Cloudflare rates checked 23 September 2026; Lambda MicroVMs rates checked 25 September 2026.

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.