E2B vs Vercel Sandbox: Vercel 23% cheaper if agents wait, E2B 51% if busy

Which is better, E2B or Vercel Sandbox?

It depends on CPU use per run and where your app lives. Runtime meters CPU by use as Vercel does, at a lower rate, so an agent that waits on a model costs $0.64 for this job, against $2.12 on Vercel and $2.76 on E2B. Its port URLs are private by default. Pick E2B for self-hosting under Apache-2.0 or paused sandboxes with no expiry. Pick Vercel Sandbox for an app already on Vercel, 19 regions, or up to 10,000 concurrent sandboxes on Pro.

At a glance

Vercel is priced in iad1, its default region.

	E2B	Vercel Sandbox	Runtime
Isolation	Firecracker microVM, own kernel	Firecracker microVM, own kernel	Firecracker microVM, own kernel
CPU	$0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour	$0.128 per active CPU-hour	$0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor
Memory	$0.0162 per GiB-hour	$0.0212 per provisioned GB-hour	$0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour
Plan fee	Hobby $0; Pro $150 per month	Hobby allowance free; usage beyond it needs Pro	None; prepaid credit from $10
Free start	$100 of usage credit, once	5 active CPU-hours and 420 GB-hours per month on Hobby	100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card
Session length	1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro	45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro	No time limit: runs while it works, pauses itself after 300 seconds idle
Pause or stop	Keeps files, memory and processes	Stop keeps the filesystem; processes start again	Pause keeps files, memory and processes
Agent sign-in	API key	Vercel project and token	Browser approval; no key in the agent's config

Which is cheaper, E2B or Vercel Sandbox?

That depends on the workload, because they meter the opposite way. E2B charges $0.0504 an hour for every vCPU it allocates, from the moment the sandbox starts until it ends. Vercel charges $0.128 an hour, but only for CPU time the code actually consumes, so seconds spent waiting on a model call are free.

Mostly waiting (20 CPU-seconds in a one-minute run): Vercel, $2.12 against $2.76 for 1,000 runs.
Mostly computing (both CPUs busy all minute): E2B, $2.76 against $5.68.

Runtime meters like Vercel, with a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU, at $0.025 a vCPU-hour, so it is the lowest at both extremes.

Cost for the same job

The waiting case in detail: 1,000 runs, each 60 seconds on 2 vCPU with 4 GiB (Vercel sells 2 GB per vCPU, so 4 GB), with 20 CPU-seconds of work per run.

E2B$2.76

CPU: 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504; $1.68
Memory: 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162; $1.08

Vercel$2.12

CPU: 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.128; $0.71
Memory: 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0212; $1.41

Runtime$0.64

CPU: 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025; $0.14
Memory: 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075; $0.50

At 100,000 runs per month, E2B bills $276.00, Vercel $212.44 and Runtime $63.89. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute the job is $1.33 on Runtime, $2.76 on E2B and $5.68 on Vercel. Plan fees, creation charges, disk, network and free allowances are not in these totals.

What survives a stop?

A paused E2B sandbox keeps its files, memory and running processes, with no expiry. A stopped Vercel sandbox keeps its filesystem, and its processes start again; Vercel's snapshots and forks capture the filesystem too. A paused Runtime sandbox keeps files, memory and running processes while you have credit, and a fork copies a running sandbox with its memory. See how to pause and resume a sandbox.

Which one to pick

E2B, for CPU-heavy work at a flat allocated rate, paused sandboxes kept with no expiry, or a runtime you can self-host under Apache-2.0.
Vercel Sandbox, for an app that already runs on Vercel, or sandboxes spread over many places: 19 regions and up to 10,000 concurrent sandboxes on Pro.
Runtime, for CPU metered by use at 80% below Vercel's rate, pause and forks that keep memory, port URLs that are private by default, and no plan fee.

Runtime Cloud

Same Firecracker isolation on all three, and Runtime is 77% cheaper than E2B and 70% cheaper than Vercel on the same job. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on E2B, $2.12 on Vercel and $0.64 on Runtime. Runtime meters CPU as Vercel does, at 80% below Vercel's CPU rate, and its memory is cheaper than either rival's. Rates checked 25 October 2026.

Sign in with npx withruntime login to try it on the free usage. E2B and Vercel Sandbox code each have a compatibility import in the migration guide.

Moving to Runtime

Both SDKs have a compatibility import on Runtime:

TypeScriptimport { Sandbox } from "withruntime/e2b"; // was: from "e2b"import { Sandbox as VercelSandbox } from "withruntime/vercel"; // was: from "@vercel/sandbox"

Pythonfrom withruntime.e2b import Sandbox  # was: from e2b import Sandboxfrom withruntime.vercel import sandbox  # was: from vercel import sandbox

Vercel code then runs without a Vercel project or token, and its stop() becomes a pause. Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. A coding agent can carry out the change from the one instruction in migration, on a branch, on the free usage. Full detail: Runtime vs E2B, Runtime vs Vercel Sandbox.

Sources

E2B and Vercel pricing pages rechecked 25 October 2026; the rest checked 25 October 2026.

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.

E2B vs Vercel Sandbox Vercel 23% cheaper if agents wait, E2B 51% if busy