# Runtime vs Morph Runtime runs each agent sandbox in its own microVM and costs **62% less than Morph** for an agent that mostly waits on a model. **The saving:** 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost **$0.64 on Runtime and $1.67 on Morph**. At 100,000 runs a month that is $63.89 against $166.67, **$103 a month saved**. ## Where Runtime is better - **You pay for the CPU you use.** Morph bills a machine's full size in MCUs for as long as it runs. Runtime measures the CPU your code actually uses, so time spent waiting on a model costs only a small floor, a twentieth of a vCPU. - **Cheaper even when busy.** With both CPUs working the whole time, the example job costs $1.33 on Runtime and $1.67 on Morph. - **CPU and memory priced apart.** One MCU covers 1 vCPU, 4 GB of memory or 16 GB of disk, and a machine pays for whichever it needs most of. On Runtime you choose vCPUs and memory separately and pay for each. - **No plan fee.** Morph's plans with included credit cost $40 or $250 a month. Runtime is prepaid credit from $10, with 50 free sandbox hours to start. - **Your agent sets itself up.** It runs `npx withruntime sandbox run --trial -- ...`, shows you a link, and starts once you approve in the browser. No API key goes into a prompt or a config file, and the [MCP server](./mcp) reuses the same connection. - **Guardrails for agents.** Give an agent a read-only key or a daily spending limit per key, and cap any create with `maxCostMicros`. Every write takes an idempotency key, so a lost response never creates a second sandbox. ## At a glance Morph's figures come from its public pricing and product pages, checked 23 September 2026. | | Runtime | Morph | | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Full virtual machines | | CPU billing | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | $0.05 per MCU-hour for the machine's size | | Memory billing | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | Inside the MCU: 4 GB per MCU | | Plan fee | None; prepaid credit from $10 | Free with no credit; Developer $40 and Team $250 a month | | Free start | 50 sandbox hours, no card | 1,000 MCUs with the $40 Developer plan | | Snapshots, forks | Files, memory and running processes | Memory and disk; branches to many replicas | ## Cost for the same job Take 1,000 runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox. Each run lasts 60 seconds and keeps the CPU busy for 20 CPU-seconds: an agent that spends most of its time waiting for a model. On Morph, 2 vCPUs and 4 GB is 2 MCUs an hour. ``` 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 Morph Size 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05 = $1.67 ``` - **Saving:** 62%, or $1.03 per 1,000 runs. - **Per month:** at 100,000 runs, $63.89 on Runtime against $166.67 on Morph. - **Busier work:** with both CPUs busy for the whole minute, $1.33 on Runtime against $1.67 on Morph. Plan fees, included credit, storage, network and taxes are left out of both. See [pricing](./pricing) for Runtime's terms. ## How to switch Give your coding agent the one instruction in [migration](./migrate). It replaces the Morph calls on a branch, tests them on the free trial, and tells you what you save each month. Your old code stays on the main branch until you merge. Runtime: ```ts import { Sandbox } from "withruntime"; const box = await Sandbox.create({ funding: "trial" }); try { console.log((await box.exec("python3 -c 'print(6 * 7)'", { check: true })).stdout); } finally { await box.stop(); } ``` ## When Morph may fit better - **Branching at scale.** Morph's Infinibranch branches a running machine, memory included, to hundreds of parallel replicas. - **Development environments for people.** Morph Devboxes are shareable workspaces that scale to zero when idle and keep their memory. ## Sources Checked 23 September 2026. - [Morph Cloud pricing](https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing) - [Morph Devboxes](https://cloud.morph.so/web/product/devboxes) - [Morph snapshots](https://cloud.morph.so/docs/documentation/instances/creating-snapshot) - Runtime [pricing](./pricing), [security](./security) and [products](./products)