# Cloudflare Sandbox vs Freestyle: what survives idle time

Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) costs 72% less than Freestyle. Freestyle keeps memory while idle. Cloudflare keeps only files.

## Which is better, Cloudflare Sandbox or Freestyle?

It depends on how long your sandboxes sit idle and how large they get. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime has the lowest cost: $0.64 for the benchmark, against $1.35 on Cloudflare and $2.25 on Freestyle. It also keeps memory across a gap of any length. Pick Cloudflare Sandbox for short jobs launched from Workers, near users. Pick Freestyle for long-lived VMs of up to 32 vCPUs.

## At a glance

|           | Cloudflare Sandbox                                                           | Freestyle                                                                | Runtime                                                        |
| --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Isolation | A container in its own VM                                                    | Full Linux virtual machines                                              | Firecracker microVM, own kernel                                |
| CPU       | $0.072 per active vCPU-hour                                 | $0.04032 per allocated vCPU-hour                           | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory    | $0.009 per provisioned GiB-hour, 3 GiB per vCPU at least | $0.0129 per GiB-hour                                   | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour                          |
| Idle      | Filesystem-only snapshots; processes restart                                 | Hibernates with memory; storage billed                                   | Pause keeps files, memory and processes while you have credit  |
| Largest   | 4 vCPUs, 12 GiB, 20 GB                                                       | 32 vCPUs and 64 GiB on Pro                                               | 16 vCPUs and 64 GiB, paid                    |
| Plan      | Workers Paid, from $5 a month                  | Free, Hobby $50, Pro $500 a month | None; prepaid credit from $10                        |

## Idle time decides it

An agent that stops to wait for a person, or comes back tomorrow, needs its
state to survive. Cloudflare's public-beta snapshots preserve saved files,
but memory and processes restart. Freestyle keeps the whole VM,
memory included, and bills storage in the meantime. Runtime does the same with
paused storage at $0.08 per GB-month for as long as you have credit.

## Cost for the same job

The benchmark runs 60 seconds a run (6 GiB and a 12 GB disk on Cloudflare, and a
32 GiB disk on Freestyle):

```
Cloudflare  CPU    1,000 × 20 s × $0.000020                     = $0.40
            Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 6 × $0.0000025                = $0.90
            Disk   1,000 × 60 s × 12 × $0.00000007              = $0.05
            Total                                                  $1.35

Freestyle   CPU    1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.04032           = $1.34
            Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0129            = $0.86
            Disk   1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 32 × $0.000086         = $0.05
            Total                                                  $2.25

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
```

With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, the job costs $3.35 on Cloudflare, $2.25 on Freestyle and $1.33 on Runtime.

## Which one to pick

- **Cloudflare Sandbox** for short jobs launched from Workers, near users.
- **Freestyle** for long-lived VMs of up to 32 vCPUs.
- **Runtime** for the lowest cost, with state that survives any gap.

See [Runtime vs Cloudflare Sandbox](/docs/cloudflare-sandbox-alternative) and
[Runtime vs Freestyle](/docs/freestyle-alternative).

## Runtime Cloud

Runtime costs 53% less than Cloudflare and 72% less than Freestyle, and keeps
memory across a pause. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox
with 20 CPU-seconds of work each cost $1.35 on Cloudflare Sandbox (6 GiB, its
minimum for two vCPUs), $2.25 on Freestyle and $0.64 on Runtime.

Create an account with `npx withruntime login`. No card is needed. To move existing code, see the [migration guide](/docs/migrate).

## Sources

- [Cloudflare sandbox lifetime](https://developers.cloudflare.com/sandbox/concepts/lifetime/), snapshot behavior checked 25 October 2026.
  Cloudflare rates checked 25 October 2026; Freestyle rates checked 25 October 2026.

- [Cloudflare Containers pricing](https://developers.cloudflare.com/containers/pricing/), [Containers limits and instance types](https://developers.cloudflare.com/containers/platform/limits/)
- [Freestyle pricing](https://www.freestyle.sh/pricing), [Freestyle VM pricing and limits](https://www.freestyle.sh/docs/vms/pricing-and-limits)
- Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing)

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.