CreateOS Sandbox vs Claude Managed Agents
Choose Claude Managed Agents if you build on Claude and want Anthropic to run the whole agent loop and container for $0.08 per running session-hour plus tokens. Choose CreateOS Sandbox if you run your own agent loop, any model, or untrusted user code, and need more than 8 GB of memory, an inbound HTTPS URL, or pause and fork.
Claude Managed Agents is in beta, and requests use the managed-agents-2026-04-01 beta header.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Claude Managed Agents 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
Claude Managed Agents
Claude Managed Agents charges standard model token rates plus $0.08 per session-hour while a session is running, and $10 per 1,000 web searches, with no separate container-hour charge, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Claude Managed Agents has the edge.
Model-neutral: run your own loop or any of the five agent CLIs in devbox:1 (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor CLI, Pi).
Shapes up to 8 vCPU and 16 GB on Enterprise, against an 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk ceiling.
Opt-in public HTTPS URL for services inside the sandbox; inbound access is not published for Claude Managed Agents.
Fork copies a paused sandbox into independent children; fork is not published for Claude Managed Agents.
Where Claude Managed Agents is strong
You get the full Claude agent loop with prompt caching, compaction and a preloaded container (Python, Node, Go, Rust, Java, Playwright, LibreOffice), with no infrastructure to run, at $0.08 per running session-hour.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You run non-Claude agents or arbitrary user code.
- The sandbox must serve an app on a public HTTPS URL.
- You want to pause a session with memory and branch it with fork.
Pick Claude Managed Agents if
- Your agent is built on Claude and you do not want to run a loop, cache or compaction yourself.
- Long asynchronous tasks fit within 8 GB of memory and 10 GB of disk.
- You want a per-session dollar budget that pauses a session at its cap.
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 | Claude Managed Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Isolated Linux container per session on Anthropic infrastructure; self-hosted worker option |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Stateful sessions resume after pauses; history, sandbox state and outputs stored server-side |
| Fork | Yes, fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies | Not published |
| Outbound network default | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | API-created environments: unrestricted with a safety blocklist; Console/Studio: limited mode with allowed_hosts |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in public HTTPS URL | Not published |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | Up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk, x86_64; vCPU not published |
| Session length | No cap; idle auto-pause 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Not published (vendor-stated: tasks run for minutes or hours) |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, storage $0.0001584 per GB-hour; no egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Model tokens plus $0.08 per running session-hour |
| SDKs and interfaces | TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java SDKs (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST | REST API with beta header; Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, C#, PHP, Ruby SDKs; ant CLI |
| Self-host or BYOC | Enterprise only, onboarded by our team | Partial: sandbox on your own worker; agent loop stays on Anthropic's service |
Common Questions
Can Claude Managed Agents run agents other than Claude?
It is built to run Claude: Anthropic's harness runs Claude with bash and file tools in a per-session container. For other models or your own loop, CreateOS Sandbox is model-neutral, and its devbox:1 image ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor CLI and Pi.
How much memory does a Claude Managed Agents container get?
Up to 8 GB of memory and 10 GB of disk on x86_64 Ubuntu 24.04; vCPU is not published. CreateOS Sandbox shapes go to 8 vCPU and 8 GB on Pro and 8 vCPU and 16 GB on Enterprise, with disks up to 60 GiB on Enterprise.
Is outbound network open in Claude Managed Agents?
It depends on how the environment was created. API-created environments default to unrestricted outbound with a safety blocklist, while Console and Studio default to limited mode. CreateOS Sandbox is open with no rules and deny-by-default once any rule exists.
Can I self-host Claude Managed Agents?
Partly. You can run the sandbox as a worker on your own infrastructure, but the agent loop stays on Anthropic's service. CreateOS Sandbox self-hosting and BYOC are enterprise-only and onboarded into the managed data plane by our team.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.