# Daytona vs Runloop: pricing, isolation and limits Both bill allocated CPU and memory while a sandbox runs; the same job costs $2.76 on Daytona and $5.33 on a Runloop devbox. **Runtime costs 77% less than Daytona and 88% less than Runloop for an eval or agent job that waits on a model.** 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox are $2.76 on Daytona, $5.33 on Runloop and $0.64 on Runtime, whose CPU is metered by use at $0.025 a vCPU-hour. Each Runtime sandbox is a Firecracker microVM, and each can pause with memory and running processes. Rates checked 23 September 2026. ## At a glance | | Daytona | Runloop | Runtime | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | microVM, with a container inside | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox | | CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.108 per CPU-hour while the devbox runs | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | $0.0252 per GB-hour | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Disk | First 5 GiB free, then $0.000108 per GiB-hour | $0.00034236 per GB-hour | Included while running; paused storage $0.08 per GB-month | | Plan fee | None published | Basic free; Pro $250 a month plus usage | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | $200 of compute | $50 of credit, no card; 3 running devboxes on the trial | 50 sandbox hours, no card; 8 sandboxes at once | | Pause and resume | Files and memory on VM sandboxes | Suspend keeps the disk, processes restart; on Pro | Files, memory and processes, every sandbox | ## Which is better for agent evals and benchmarks? Runloop sells benchmarks as a product. Its Basic plan includes public benchmarks such as SWE-Bench, and Pro adds custom benchmarks built from your data. On Runtime you bring the harness and run each task in its own sandbox. The cost of a large eval run is where they part. An eval task spends most of its time waiting for the model under test, and the three bill for that time at very different rates: | For 1,000 one-minute tasks | Runloop | Daytona | Runtime | | -------------------------- | ------: | ------: | ------: | | 20 CPU-seconds per task | $5.33 | $2.76 | $0.64 | | Both CPUs busy throughout | $5.33 | $2.76 | $1.33 | A Runtime fork also copies a prepared sandbox with its memory and running processes, so a repository installed once can start several attempts from the same point. See [agent evals and SWE-bench](/use-cases/agent-evals-and-swe-bench) and [RL environments](/use-cases/rl-environments). ## Cost for the same job Worked out for the first row: 1,000 tasks of 60 seconds on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, 20 CPU-seconds of computing in each. Runloop's matching size is `MEDIUM`, with 2 CPUs, 4 GB and 8 GB of disk. ``` Daytona CPU 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504 = $1.68 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162 = $1.08 Total $2.76 Runloop CPU 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.108 = $3.60 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0252 = $1.68 Disk 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 8 × $0.00034236 = $0.05 Total $5.33 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 ``` Scaled up to 100,000 runs a month, Daytona comes to $276.00, Runloop to $532.56 and Runtime to $63.89. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime, $2.76 on Daytona and $5.33 on Runloop. Plan fees, storage while stopped, network and free credit are left out. ## What survives between sessions? A suspended Runloop devbox keeps its disk; compute and memory charges stop, and its processes must be restarted when it resumes. Suspend and resume are on the Pro plan. Daytona keeps files and memory when a VM sandbox stops. A paused Runtime sandbox keeps files, memory and running processes on every sandbox, for 1 to 365 days, and wakes on the next request: ```python check from withruntime import Sandbox sbx = Sandbox.create(timeout_seconds=600) sbx.exec("echo state > /workspace/state.txt") sbx.pause() # memory and files are kept; compute billing stops again = Sandbox.connect(sbx.id) again.wake(timeout_seconds=1200) again.extend(600) again.stop() ``` ## Which one to pick - **Daytona**, for GPU sandboxes or Windows machines at a flat rate well below Runloop's, or a $200 free start. - **Runloop**, for benchmarks, public and custom, delivered as a managed product, or for deployment into your own cloud account with the SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR readiness it states. - **Runtime**, for eval and agent runs at under a quarter of Daytona's price and an eighth of Runloop's, pause and forks that keep memory and processes on every sandbox, and no plan fee. ## Moving to Runtime Daytona code needs one import changed: ```ts no-run import { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk" ``` ```python no-run from withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import Daytona ``` Runloop code is ported through the [migration table](/docs/migrate#map-the-calls): a devbox is created with `Sandbox.create()`, commands run through `exec`, suspend and resume become `pause()` and `wake()`, and shutdown is `stop()`. `npx withruntime compare --from runloop` reprices your Runloop usage, and `npx withruntime switch --from daytona` before the first top-up matches it with credit, up to $100. A coding agent can do either port from the one instruction in [migration](/docs/migrate), on a branch and on the free trial. See [Runtime vs Daytona](/docs/daytona-alternative) and [Runtime vs Runloop](/docs/runloop-alternative). ## Sources Daytona and Runloop pricing pages rechecked 25 September 2026; the rest checked 23 September 2026. - [Runloop pricing](https://www.runloop.ai/pricing), [Devbox sizes](https://docs.runloop.ai/docs/devboxes/configuration/sizes), [Devbox lifecycle](https://docs.runloop.ai/docs/devboxes/lifecycle), [Runloop](https://www.runloop.ai/) - [Daytona pricing](https://www.daytona.io/pricing), [Daytona sandboxes](https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/sandboxes) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.