CreateOS Sandbox vs E2B
Pick E2B if you need hundreds of concurrent sandboxes, a live fork of a running VM, or an open-source runtime you can self-host. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if your agents run for hours without stopping, since there is no session cap, and you want lower published per-vCPU and per-GiB rates with SDKs in six languages. Both run each sandbox in a Firecracker micro-VM with its own kernel.
Pricing at a glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. E2B 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
Lower compute rate- Compute
- $0.0362 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0116 /GiB-hr
- No egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget
- vCPU stops billing while paused
E2B
- Compute
- $0.0504 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0162 /GiB-hr
E2B bills per second at $0.000014 per vCPU-second and $0.0000045 per GiB-second, with a free Hobby plan, Pro at $150 per month plus usage and Enterprise from $3,000 per month, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox fits better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where E2B has the edge.
- No session length cap. E2B limits continuous runtime to 1 hour on Hobby and 24 hours on Pro before you must pause.
- Lower published compute rates: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, against E2B's $0.0504 and $0.0162.
- Inbound stays closed until you opt in to an HTTPS URL; E2B makes every sandbox port public by default.
- Official SDKs for Go, Rust, C# and Java (pre-1.0) next to TypeScript and Python; E2B publishes JavaScript/TypeScript and Python.
Where E2B is strong
E2B has the fullest sandbox lifecycle API in this group: pause and resume with memory and no retention limit, live fork of a running VM into several copies, detailed egress rules, and an Apache-2.0 runtime you can self-host or run BYOC in your own AWS, GCP or Azure account.
Which to pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Agents run longer than 24 hours in one stretch.
- You write your agent backend in Go, Rust, C# or Java.
- You want inbound ports closed unless you turn on a URL.
Pick E2B if
- You need more than 30 concurrent sandboxes; E2B Pro includes 100 and sells up to 1,100.
- You want to fork a sandbox while it keeps running.
- You plan to self-host the open-source runtime or run BYOC on AWS, GCP or Azure.
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 | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Firecracker micro-VM, dedicated kernel per sandbox (vendor-stated) |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU billing stops, memory and storage still bill | Keeps filesystem and memory with running processes restored; paused sandboxes kept indefinitely |
| Fork | Forks a paused sandbox into many independent copies | Live fork of a running sandbox into one or more copies; the original keeps running |
| 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 | Open; deny-all, allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or hostname, updatable on a running sandbox |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in HTTPS URL | Every port public by default; can be restricted with traffic access tokens |
| Concurrency | 1 / 5 / 20 / 30 by plan (Free to Enterprise); paused sandboxes count | 20 on Hobby; 100 on Pro, up to 1,100 with add-ons; more on Enterprise |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | 1 hour continuous on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, $0.0001584/GB-hr storage; no egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Per second: $0.0504 per vCPU-hour, $0.0162 per GiB-hour; Pro $150/month; egress not published |
| SDKs and interfaces | TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST | JavaScript/TypeScript and Python SDKs, CLI, REST API |
| Self-host or BYOC | Enterprise only, onboarded by our team | Open-source (Apache-2.0) self-host; BYOC on AWS, GCP or Azure on Enterprise |
Common questions
Does E2B or CreateOS Sandbox allow longer agent runs?
CreateOS Sandbox has no session length cap, so a sandbox runs until you pause or destroy it. E2B caps continuous runtime at 1 hour on Hobby and 24 hours on Pro, though pausing and resuming resets that clock, so total lifetime on E2B is not capped either.
Can I fork a running sandbox on E2B and on CreateOS?
E2B can fork a running sandbox in place while the original keeps running. CreateOS Sandbox forks from a paused sandbox: you pause it, then create as many independent copies as you need, each with its own id and IP. If you need to branch without pausing, E2B fits better.
How do E2B and CreateOS Sandbox compare on price per hour?
On published rates, CreateOS Sandbox charges $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, billed per second. E2B charges $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour, also per second, and its Pro plan adds $150 a month. Plan fees and included credits change the total, so model your own workload.
Can I self-host E2B or CreateOS Sandbox?
E2B publishes its runtime as open source under Apache-2.0, with Docker Compose, Terraform and Kubernetes paths, plus BYOC on Enterprise. CreateOS Sandbox self-hosting and BYOC are enterprise only and onboarded by our team; there is no open-source install.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.