CreateOS Sandbox vs CircleCI
CircleCI fits teams that need one CI service across Linux, Windows, macOS and GPU, with mature caching and parallelism. CreateOS Sandbox fits agent work that is not tied to a commit: a micro-VM created by API that runs as long as the session lasts, and can pause and fork. If you need GPUs, CircleCI has them and CreateOS does not.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. CircleCI 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
CircleCI
CircleCI Free includes 30,000 credits/month and Performance starts at $15/month for 30,000 credits; Docker classes use 5 credits/min (1 CPU/2 GB) to 100 credits/min (20 CPU/40 GB), and network and storage overage is 420 credits/GB, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where CircleCI has the edge.
No job runtime cap, where CircleCI stops jobs at 1, 3 or 5 hours by plan.
Snapshots that keep memory, plus fork. CircleCI carries only caches, workspaces and artifacts between jobs.
No egress fees, against CircleCI's 420 credits per GB beyond the included network.
Where CircleCI is strong
Breadth of execution environments, including NVIDIA GPU and Apple-silicon macOS classes, with mature caching and parallelism for large test suites.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Your agent's session is not tied to a commit or pipeline
- Work runs longer than 5 hours
- You want to keep an environment's memory between steps
Pick CircleCI if
- You need CI across Linux, Windows, macOS and GPU
- You run large test suites that benefit from parallelism
- You need FedRAMP Tailored (vendor-stated)
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 | CircleCI |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | API-created sandboxes for agent-written and untrusted code | Building and testing code on every commit |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Docker executor (container) or machine executor (VM) per job; GPU and macOS on VMs |
| Trigger model | API, SDK, CLI or MCP call, on demand | Pipeline config in .circleci/config.yml; REST API v2 |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | 1 hour (Free), 3 hours (Performance), 5 hours (Scale) |
| Pause and resume | Yes. Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Not published; caches, workspaces and artifacts carry between jobs |
| Outbound network | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any rule exists (host, IP, CIDR, wildcard), enforced on the host outside the VM | Not published; IP ranges feature for a fee |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr; no egress fees (50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox by default) | Credits per minute by resource class |
Common Questions
Can I SSH into a CircleCI job?
Yes, for debugging: CircleCI offers an SSH rerun, but jobs are not otherwise reachable from outside. A CreateOS sandbox offers API-authenticated shell and tunnels, an SSH gateway for attached keys, and an opt-in public HTTPS URL.
Does CircleCI have GPU runners?
Yes, on the Scale plan: NVIDIA Tesla P4, T4, A10G and V100 classes, with GPU Large V100 at 1,000 credits per minute. CreateOS Sandbox has no GPU shapes, so GPU work needs another provider.
How much does a CircleCI credit cost?
On Performance, $15 buys 25,000 credits, or $0.0006 per credit, so a Docker Medium (2 CPU / 4 GB, 10 credits a minute) costs about $0.006 per minute. CreateOS bills per second at $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.