CreateOS Sandbox vs Azure Virtual Machines
Use Azure Virtual Machines for long-running Linux or Windows servers, large GPU or memory sizes, and anything tied to Entra ID. Use CreateOS Sandbox when an agent needs a disposable Linux machine per task, billed per second, that can be paused, forked and destroyed by API. Azure also has Container Apps Sandboxes for agent work, compared on its own page.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Azure Virtual Machines pricing as published on 17 October 2026. Rates billed per GB rather than per GiB, or as bundled sizes, are quoted as published rather than converted.
CreateOS Sandbox
- Compute
- $0.0362 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0116 /GiB-hr
Azure Virtual Machines
Azure prices whole VM sizes per minute; for example Standard_D2as_v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GiB) on Linux pay-as-you-go is $0.086 per hour in East US, or $0.018155 per hour on Spot, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Azure Virtual Machines has the edge.
Per-second billing, where Azure bills VMs for full minutes running.
Fork a paused sandbox into copies that start from its saved memory; Azure builds new VMs from disk snapshots or gallery images.
Outbound rules per sandbox by hostname, wildcard, IP or CIDR, without setting up NSGs, a NAT gateway or Azure Firewall.
An opt-in HTTPS URL with managed certificates instead of a public IP plus NSG rules.
Where Azure Virtual Machines is strong
A huge size range, from cheap burstable VMs to 1,792-vCPU memory machines and current NVIDIA and AMD GPU sizes, with first-class Windows and Entra ID integration.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You run short Linux tasks for agents and want per-second billing
- You want forkable snapshots that include memory
- You want images with coding-agent CLIs, or a desktop with Chrome, ready to use
Pick Azure Virtual Machines if
- You need Windows servers or machines governed through Entra ID
- Your workload needs GPUs such as H100, H200 or MI300X, or more than 16 GB of RAM
- You want hibernation for a long-lived VM on a supported size
Head-to-Head Comparison
Every dimension side by side, checked on 17 October 2026 against each vendor's own docs and pricing pages. "Not published" means we could not find it on the vendor's pages, not that the feature is missing.
| Dimension | CreateOS Sandbox | Azure Virtual Machines |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM (Azure hypervisor) |
| Create and destroy by API | Yes: REST API, CLI, SDKs for TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), and an MCP server with create, exec and destroy tools | Yes: Azure CLI, PowerShell, REST/ARM, SDKs (.NET, Java, Python, JavaScript, Go), Bicep and Terraform; MCP not published |
| Memory snapshot (pause and resume) | Yes: pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Hibernation saves memory to the OS disk on supported sizes (general-purpose v5 up to 64 GB RAM, some GPU series up to 112 GB) |
| Fork | Yes: fork a paused sandbox into new, independent sandboxes | No live fork published; new VMs from disk snapshots or Compute Gallery images |
| Outbound network controls | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Depends on the VNet: default outbound access on existing subnets; new VNets after 31 March 2026 are private by default. Filtering via NSGs or Azure Firewall |
| Billing granularity | Per second while running, no minimums: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour | Per minute, for full minutes running |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (8 / 8 Pro, 4 / 4 Beginner, 1 / 1 Free) | Standard_M1792ixds_32_v3: 1,792 vCPUs, 30,400 GiB |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Yes: NC, ND and NV families incl. H100, H200, A100, GB200, GB300 and MI300X |
Common Questions
Can Azure VMs pause with memory like a CreateOS sandbox?
Some can. Azure hibernation writes memory to the OS disk and resumes running processes on supported sizes, such as general-purpose v5 VMs with up to 64 GB of RAM. CreateOS pauses any sandbox with disk, memory and CPU state, and can fork the paused snapshot into new sandboxes.
Is outbound internet open by default on Azure Virtual Machines?
It depends on the subnet. Existing or non-private subnets get Microsoft-owned default outbound access, but new VNets created with API versions after 31 March 2026 are private by default. CreateOS sandboxes are open until you add one rule, then deny everything not listed.
Does Azure offer free VM hours I could use for agent experiments?
Yes. New Azure customers get $200 of credit for 30 days and 12 months of 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 and B2ats v2 burstable VMs. CreateOS Free gives 500 credits, one concurrent 1 vCPU / 1 GB sandbox and 10 creates per day, with no card required.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.