ProvidersChecked 2026-10-28

Vercel Sandbox

Firecracker microVMs inside Vercel, billed on active CPU and provisioned memory.

Short answer: One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $73.12 a month here, with a catch: Sessions end after 24 hours, so an always-on machine has to be restarted by your own code. The AI model adds about $14.70 a month on top (GLM 5.3, 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $6.84 at the cheapest host). Fits well: A Firecracker microVM with root, Docker and FUSE, up to 32 vCPU and 64 GB of NVMe.

vercel.com/docs/sandbox16 providersSources linked

Vercel Sandbox runs untrusted or agent-generated code in Firecracker microVMs, managed through a CLI, JavaScript SDK or Python SDK.

It is part of the Vercel platform rather than a separate product: usage sits on the Vercel plan, and the Hobby plan is restricted to non-commercial use.

At a glance

Who it is for	Teams already on Vercel who want agent code execution with many regions and familiar account controls.
Isolation	Firecracker microVM with a dedicated kernel. Root access, Docker and FUSE are documented; systemd and nested virtualisation are not.
Sizes	1 or even numbers of vCPUs from 2 to 32 depending on plan, 2 GB of memory per vCPU, and 64 GB of ephemeral NVMe. Hobby caps at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, Pro at 8 / 16, Enterprise at 32 / 64. Nineteen regions; no GPU published.
A personal agent here	About $73.12 a month for one always-on 2 vCPU / 4 GiB machine (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB), before the AI model. The catch: Sessions end after 24 hours, so an always-on machine has to be restarted by your own code. Change the numbers
Recommended in	Not one of the picks in any use-case guide.

Fits well, fits badly

Our reading of the sourced material on this page, not a provider claim.

Fits well

A Firecracker microVM with root, Docker and FUSE, up to 32 vCPU and 64 GB of NVMe.
A workload that needs to run close to users: 19 regions, and the most of any provider here.
A Vercel-hosted app that wants a sandbox next to its deployments, with credentials brokered out of the machine.

Fits badly

An always-on agent: the default session timeout is five minutes and the Hobby cap is 45 minutes.
A confidential Hobby workload: Hobby content may be used for model training, and the plan is non-commercial.
Anything needing SSH, a desktop or a raw TCP inbound port.

Compare: alternatives to Vercel Sandbox · E2B vs Vercel Sandbox

How it bills

Model	Metered usage against the Vercel plan, with a monthly credit on Pro.
Meter	Active CPU at $0.128 per CPU-hour, excluding time waiting on I/O; provisioned memory at $0.0212 per GB-hour with a one-minute minimum; creations, data transfer, snapshots and drives separately.
While stopped	No CPU or memory charge, but snapshots and drives keep billing. Persistent sandboxes create a billable snapshot when they stop.
Plan fee	Vercel Pro is $20 a month and includes $20 of usage credit, which expires monthly.
Minimum	Memory bills in one-minute increments. Hobby has included quotas and pauses creation when they are exhausted.

How Vercel Sandbox lets you try before paying is on Trials and free tiers.

Where it stands out

Firecracker isolation with root and Docker inside.
Nineteen regions.
Credential brokering keeps secrets out of the guest.
Drives are billed on used data, not provisioned size.
Snapshots expire after 30 days by default and can be kept indefinitely.

Using it without writing code

Dashboard	The Vercel dashboard can stop or delete a sandbox and shows a lifecycle activity log.
Without code	No documented no-code path; the workflows are CLI and SDK.
Signup	A Vercel account. Card requirement depends on the plan and trial path; Hobby is non-commercial only.
Docs and support	Vercel's docs cover sandbox concepts, SDK, pricing and limits. Support follows the Vercel plan.

Capability checklist

Every capability the guide checks, with the catch where Vercel Sandbox's version falls short. Compare all providers

The company

From the profile's company section: the legal entity, who funds it, and what a buyer can check before signing.

Legal entity

Vercel Inc., a Delaware corporation.

“Vercel Inc., a Delaware corporation” vercel.com docs-confirmed

Founded

2015, by Guillermo Rauch, who is CEO. Sandbox was announced in June 2025 and went GA in January 2026.

“Our founding insight back in 2015 was simple” vercel.com docs-confirmed

Funding

$300M Series F at a $9.3B valuation in September 2025, co-led by Accel and GIC.

“Today, Vercel announced an important milestone: a Series F funding round valuing our company at $9.3 billion.” vercel.com docs-confirmed

Headcount

600, per Forbes in September 2025. No current company-confirmed figure.

“Employees 600” forbes.com third-party

Status and SLA

Sandbox is listed as operational with no Sandbox-specific percentage. The 99.99% Enterprise SLA does not name Sandbox.

“available 99.99% of the time, excluding any Excused Downtime events” vercel.com docs-confirmed

Certification

SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001:2022 at platform level; Sandbox's place in that scope is not published.

“Vercel has a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation for Security, Confidentiality, and Availability.” vercel.com docs-confirmed

Caveats and contradictions

Shown as the research found them. A contradiction means the provider's own pages disagree; an open question means the answer is not published.

01
Persistence is billed by default Open question
Persistent sandboxes save their filesystem when stopped, and each automatic snapshot consumes snapshot storage billed separately from compute.
02
The session limit is not a lifetime limit Open question
The maximum duration applies to a single session: 45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise. Persistent sandboxes can be resumed into a new session.
03
Hobby is non-commercial Open question
The Hobby plan restricts users to non-commercial, personal use only.
04
Hobby quota reset wording differs Contradiction
One page says creation pauses until 30 days after first use; another says until the next billing cycle.
“Once you exceed the quotas, sandbox creation is paused until 30 days have passed since you first used the feature.”
Vercel Sandboxpricing-page
“Once you exceed your included limit on Hobby, sandbox creation is paused until the next billing cycle.”
Vercel Sandboxpricing-page
05
Fork is not a live memory copy Open question
Fork uses the current saved snapshot or falls back to a fresh create from the image; manual snapshotting stops the source.

Sources

The three shared workloads

List-price illustrations from the calculator, not quotes. Prices checked 29 October 2026.

A · 1,000 short tasks

$35.47

2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 10 GiB (plan: Pro)

CPU, while working166.67 h × 1 vCPU busy × $0.128$21.33
Memory166.67 h × 4 GiB × $0.0212$14.13

Pro: $20.00 plan, $20.00 of usage included, $15.47 over.
A persistent sandbox restores its files from a snapshot when it starts again, not its memory or running processes. Snapshot storage is $0.08 per GB-month; the calculator charges it on the full disk size, which overstates it if little is written.
Each sandbox gets 64 GB of fast disk at no separate charge while it runs.
Creations, data transfer and drives are billed separately and are not included.
Sandboxes that cannot resume from a snapshot are removed after 14 days of inactivity.

B · One always-on box

$161.18, with a catch

4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 50 GiB (plan: Pro)

CPU, while working730 h × 0.4 vCPU busy × $0.128$37.38
Memory730 h × 8 GiB × $0.0212$123.81

Pro: $20.00 plan, $20.00 of usage included, $141.18 over.
A persistent sandbox restores its files from a snapshot when it starts again, not its memory or running processes. Snapshot storage is $0.08 per GB-month; the calculator charges it on the full disk size, which overstates it if little is written.
Each sandbox gets 64 GB of fast disk at no separate charge while it runs.
Creations, data transfer and drives are billed separately and are not included.
Sandboxes that cannot resume from a snapshot are removed after 14 days of inactivity.

It cannot run this exactly as described: Sessions end after 24 hours, so an always-on machine has to be restarted by your own code.

C · Three hours a day

$20.00

2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB (plan: Pro)

CPU, while working90 h × 0.2 vCPU busy × $0.128$2.30
Memory90 h × 4 GiB × $0.0212$7.63
Disk while stopped640 h × 20 GiB × $0.0001096$1.40

Pro: $20.00 plan, $20.00 of usage included.
A persistent sandbox restores its files from a snapshot when it starts again, not its memory or running processes. Snapshot storage is $0.08 per GB-month; the calculator charges it on the full disk size, which overstates it if little is written.
Each sandbox gets 64 GB of fast disk at no separate charge while it runs.
Creations, data transfer and drives are billed separately and are not included.
Sandboxes that cannot resume from a snapshot are removed after 14 days of inactivity.