Compare · agental and Vercel Sandbox
agental or Vercel Sandbox? Here is when to pick each.
Both give an agent a virtual machine of its own that keeps its disk when stopped. They differ in how long one runs at a time, how it is billed, and what comes with it.
Pick Vercel Sandbox for sandboxes started in milliseconds, in 19 regions, beside apps you already run on Vercel. Pick agental for runs that go on past 24 hours and a much smaller bill, and for an agent that needs SSH, mail, a browser you drive or a desktop.
Pick Vercel Sandbox if…
- ✓Sandboxes in millisecondsVercel says its sandboxes start in milliseconds. Every one of ours boots a whole VM, which takes longer.
- ✓CPU billed only while busyTime an agent spends waiting on its model costs no CPU there. Memory is billed the whole time, so the hour still costs more than ours.
- ✓19 regionsChosen for each sandbox. We run in one region today.
- ✓Drives shared between sandboxesStorage that outlives a sandbox and mounts in others. Ours keep their own disk only.
- ✓Static addresses and your own networkSecure Compute sends traffic out through static IPs and reaches your VPC. We have neither.
- ✓Beside your Vercel appsOne account and one bill with the sites you host there, and a free Hobby tier. Ours is free to start too, with $10 of credit once you save a card.
Pick agental if…
- ✓About a quarter of the priceThe same 2 vCPU and 4 GiB costs $0.027 an hour here and $0.1104 at Vercel, even with its CPU only 10% busy.
- ✓No restart every 24 hoursA Vercel session ends after 24 hours on Pro and 45 minutes on Hobby; it resumes from its disk with its programs stopped. Here it runs until you stop it.
- ✓A bigger diskUp to 160 GB here. Vercel's sandboxes have 64 GB.
- ✓SSH, from any terminal or editorConnect the way you connect to any server. Vercel gives a shell through its own CLI.
- ✓Its own email addressEach sandbox receives mail. E2B, Daytona, Modal and Vercel don't offer it.
- ✓Your Playwright drives its ChromeChrome comes in the sandbox, and your own browser automation connects to it from your computer.
- ✓A desktop for computer useA screen to watch, and clicks, keys and screenshots for a model. Vercel has none.
By what you are building.
Kinds of agent, and which of the two we would choose for each, Vercel Sandbox included.
The same month at each.
Five coding agents on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, 8 hours a working day, their disks kept in between.
agental: Free, no fee; $27.50 of top-ups that add $27.50; 880 h at $0.027, 2,770 h stopped at $0.00135. Vercel Sandbox: Pro, $20 credit; $0.128 per busy vCPU-hour at 30% busy, $0.0212 per GB-hour; 24 h runs at most.
Side by side.
Every difference we know of, including the ones we lose.
| What | agental | Vercel Sandbox | Better at it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price of 2 vCPU · 4 GiB, an hourList price; Vercel's CPU at 10% busy, its own examples' share. | $0.027 | $0.1104 | agental |
| A month of five coding agents8 hours a working day; Vercel's CPU at 30% busy. | $27.50 | $142.21 | agental |
| A virtual machine of its ownIts own kernel, not a shared one. | ✓ | ✓ Firecracker | Even |
| Longest a sandbox runs at onceBefore its programs have to start again. | No limit | 24 h on Pro · 45 min on Hobby | agental |
| Stopped and started againWhat comes back. | Its disk, and its memory if asked | Its disk | agental |
| What a stopped sandbox costsWhile nothing runs. | 5% of its price | $0.08 a GB a month, as saved | Even |
| The largest sandboxWithout a sales contract. | 8 vCPU · 16 GiB · 160 GB | 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 64 GB | agental |
| How fast one is madeAs each says. | A VM boots | In milliseconds, they say | Vercel Sandbox |
| CPU billedFor the hours it runs. | The whole hour | Only while busy | Vercel Sandbox |
| Fork a sandboxA copy with the same disk. | Every sandbox | From a snapshot | Even |
| Your own outbound rulesWhat a sandbox may reach. | Every plan | ✓ by domain or subnet | Even |
| SSH from any clientYour terminal, your editor, scp. | ✓ | A shell through its CLI | agental |
| An email address of its ownMail in to the sandbox. | ✓ | — | agental |
| Its Chrome driven from your computerYour own Playwright connects. | ✓ | — | agental |
| A desktop for computer useA screen, clicks and keys. | ✓ | — | agental |
| Webhooks as sandboxes changeTold when one stops, starts or fails. | ✓ | — | agental |
| Metrics to your own collectorOpenTelemetry, where you keep the rest. | ✓ | — | agental |
| A create that is safe to retrySent twice, makes one sandbox. | ✓ | By a unique name | Even |
| Storage shared between sandboxesKept apart from any one sandbox. | — | ✓ Drives | Vercel Sandbox |
| Static IPs and your own VPCTo reach private networks. | — | ✓ Secure Compute | Vercel Sandbox |
| RegionsWhere sandboxes run. | One | 19 | Vercel Sandbox |
| SDKsOfficial libraries. | Python, TypeScript, CLI | Python, JavaScript, CLI | Even |
Vercel Sandbox read from vercel.com/sandbox, vercel.com/docs/sandbox/pricing and vercel.com/docs/sandbox on 27 October 2026. Tell us if something changed: [email protected].
The same calls, by their names here.
What you use at Vercel Sandbox today, and what it is called in agental's TypeScript SDK. The Python SDK has the same names.
| At Vercel Sandbox | becomes | At agental |
|---|---|---|
Sandbox.create({ name, image }) | agental.sandboxes.create({ template })Answers when the machine is running. | |
sandbox.runCommand(cmd, args) | sandbox.exec(cmd)A command that fails is an answer: read its exit code. | |
sandbox.writeFiles() / readFileToBuffer() | sandbox.files.write() / read()Or copy files with scp over SSH. | |
sandbox.stop() / Sandbox.get({ name, resume: true }) | sandbox.stop() / start()The disk is kept at both. Here the memory is kept too, with stop({ keepMemory: true }). | |
ports: [port], sandbox.domain(port) | sandbox.expose(port)An HTTPS address for a port, asked for after the sandbox is made. |
What we don't do yet.
If one of these decides it for you, Vercel Sandbox is the better choice today.
- —Storage shared between sandboxesNot built.
- —Static IPs and private networksNot offered.
- —A second regionNot yet. We will say so here when there is one.
- —CPU billed only while busyWe bill the machine's whole hour, at a lower price.
Questions people ask.
Is agental a drop-in replacement for Vercel Sandbox?
No. The idea is the same (make a sandbox, run commands, read and write files, stop and resume it), but the SDK is different, so the calls are rewritten. Most of them map one to one: the table above shows how.
Vercel bills CPU only while it is busy. Isn't that cheaper for agents that wait?
Not here. Vercel bills memory for the whole time, and 4 GB of it alone is $0.0848 an hour, more than our whole $0.027 machine, before any CPU.
Why is agental so much cheaper?
We run on dedicated servers we rent by the month, not on a cloud's machines rented by the hour.
Does a stopped agental sandbox keep its memory?
When you ask: `sandbox.stop({ keepMemory: true })` keeps its memory as well as its disk, and start puts back every process as it was, in seconds. Stopped so, it costs 10% of its running price. A Vercel stop keeps the disk only: programs start again.
How long can an agental sandbox run?
Until you stop it. You can give it a time limit, and you or the agent in it can move that limit as often as the work needs.
Where do Vercel Sandbox's numbers come from?
From vercel.com's sandbox docs and its pricing page, read on 27 October 2026. If something there has changed, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix this page.