CreateOS Sandbox vs Browser Use
Pick Browser Use if your agent's job is browsing websites: the open-source agent library and $0.02/hour hosted browsers come from one vendor. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if the agent also has to run code, shells or servers, because each sandbox is a full Linux micro-VM with no lifetime cap, and its desktop:1 image includes Chrome for the browsing part.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Browser Use 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
Browser Use
Browsers cost $0.02 per hour billed per minute (1-minute minimum), residential proxy $5/GB (on by default) or $0.20/GB direct, and agents add model cost plus 20%, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Browser Use has the edge.
No session lifetime cap, where Browser Use agent browsers hit a four-hour hard timeout.
Agent-written code, shells and servers run inside a Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel.
No per-GB egress price (each sandbox gets a 50 GiB bandwidth budget by default), while Browser Use's default residential proxy costs $5/GB.
An opt-in public HTTPS URL can expose a service the agent starts; Browser Use offers no inbound ports for user services.
Where Browser Use is strong
Browser time costs $0.02 per hour, and the same company maintains the most widely used open-source browser-agent library, so the agent loop and the hosted browser fit together out of the box.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- The agent writes and runs code, starts servers or installs packages between browsing steps.
- Tasks can run longer than four hours.
- You want outbound traffic limited to an allowlist enforced outside the VM.
Pick Browser Use if
- Your agent mainly reads and acts on websites and you want the Browser Use library and hosted stealth browsers from one vendor.
- You need residential proxies and high browser concurrency, which scales to 1,000 sessions at $25,000 lifetime spend.
- Raw per-hour browser cost matters more to you than general compute.
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 | Browser Use |
|---|---|---|
| What you get (browser vs full Linux machine) | Full Linux micro-VM; the desktop:1 image adds an XFCE desktop, Google Chrome and a computer-use API | Hosted stealth Chromium sessions plus an agent API and open-source Python library |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | Not published |
| Session length | No lifetime cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Agent browsers stop about 2 minutes after last activity; keepAlive 120 to 14,400 s; four-hour hard timeout |
| Run arbitrary code | Yes: exec, shell, files and managed processes; devbox:1 ships Python 3.12, Node.js 24, Go, Rust and Docker | Browser plus agent loop; no published shell or compute shape |
| Outbound network | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Open web; residential proxy on by default ($5/GB), direct or own proxy $0.20/GB; allowlist controls not published |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr; no per-GB egress price, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Per minute, 1-minute minimum: browsers $0.02/hour plus proxy traffic; agents add model cost + 20% |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Profiles save cookies, storage and login state when a browser stops; pausing a live browser not published |
| Interfaces | SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP server, REST API | Python library; Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium or any CDP client; REST API (v4); MCP server |
Common Questions
Can Browser Use run my agent's Python scripts as well as the browser?
Not according to its published docs. Browser Use sells hosted browsers and a browser-agent loop, with no published compute shape or shell. CreateOS Sandbox runs any code in a Firecracker micro-VM, and its desktop:1 image adds Chrome and a computer-use API for the browsing part.
How long can a Browser Use session last compared with a CreateOS sandbox?
A Browser Use V4 agent browser has a four-hour hard timeout, with keepAlive configurable from 120 to 14,400 seconds. A CreateOS sandbox has no lifetime cap; it runs until you destroy or pause it, or until optional idle auto-pause takes over.
Which is cheaper per hour for a simple browsing task?
Browser Use is cheaper on raw browser time at $0.02 per hour, plus proxy traffic at $5/GB by default. CreateOS bills per second for vCPU, memory and storage; an always-on 1 vCPU / 1 GB sandbox comes to $35.52 for 720 hours, with no per-GB egress price.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
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