Which is better, Northflank or Prime Sandboxes?
It depends on whether your rollouts wait or compute. When they mostly wait on a model, Runtime is the cheapest option: $0.64 for the 2 vCPU job, against $1.11 on Northflank and $1.52 on Prime, with forks of a warmed-up environment. Pick Northflank for CPU-bound jobs that keep the CPU busy at all times, where its allocated rate is lowest, for GPUs, or for your own cloud. Pick Prime Sandboxes to run a thousand rollouts in parallel on Prime Intellect.
At a glance
| Northflank | Prime Sandboxes | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | microVMs for CPU workloads, gVisor for GPU workloads | Hardware-virtualized microVM, own guest kernel | Firecracker microVM, own kernel |
| CPU | $0.01667 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.02 per vCPU-hour while running | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory | $0.00833 per GB-hour | $0.0125 per GiB-hour | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour |
| At once | Set by your plan and project | 1,024 per account to start | 100 paid |
| GPUs | L4, A100 and H100, billed by the second | Listed as coming soon | No |
| Terms | None published for compute | Rates published through 22 December 2026 | Fixed in each quote |
Where Prime loses to Northflank
Their CPU rates are close. Memory is not: Prime's $0.0125 per GiB-hour is half as much again as Northflank's $0.00833 per GB-hour, and memory is most of this job's cost. Runtime's memory rate is below both, and its CPU is billed only while it works.
Cost for the same job
2 vCPU and 4 GiB (4 GB on Northflank), 60 seconds a run, 20 CPU-seconds, 1,000 runs, with Prime's 5 GiB default disk:
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.01667
- $0.556
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.00833
- $0.555
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.02
- $0.67
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0125
- $0.83
- Disk
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 5 × $0.0002
- $0.02
- CPU
- 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025
- $0.14
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075
- $0.50
If both CPUs stay busy for the whole minute, the job costs $1.33 on Runtime and $1.52 on Prime, with $1.11 on Northflank the lowest. Allocated CPU at a low rate wins when nothing waits.
Which one to pick
- Northflank for CPU-bound jobs, GPUs, or sandboxes in your own cloud.
- Prime Sandboxes for a thousand rollouts in parallel on Prime Intellect.
- Runtime for rollouts and agents that wait, with forks of a warmed-up environment.
See Runtime vs Northflank and Runtime vs Prime Sandboxes.
Runtime Cloud
For an agent or rollout that waits on a model, Runtime is 42% cheaper than Northflank and 58% cheaper than Prime. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox, 20 CPU-seconds of work each: $1.11 on Northflank, $1.52 on Prime Sandboxes, $0.64 on Runtime.
Sign in once with npx withruntime login and run on the free usage. The
migration guide explains how to move from Northflank or Prime.
Sources
Northflank rates checked 25 October 2026; Prime Sandboxes rates checked 25 October 2026.
- Northflank pricing, Northflank sandboxes
- Prime Sandboxes overview, Prime Sandboxes launch
- Runtime pricing
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.