CreateOS Sandbox vs Google Compute Engine
Use Google Compute Engine for long-running VMs, custom machine shapes and GPU work on Google Cloud, or as the base for your own sandbox fleet. Use CreateOS Sandbox when you want the sandbox already built: Firecracker micro-VMs that fork from a paused snapshot, take hostname egress rules and come with agent tools installed. For managed agent sandboxes inside Google Cloud, see our GKE Agent Sandbox comparison.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Google Compute Engine pricing as published on 26 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
Google Compute Engine
Compute Engine bills per second after a 1-minute minimum; Google lists per-machine prices on its pricing page (linked in Sources), and we could not read a current figure on 26 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Google Compute Engine has the edge.
Fork a paused sandbox into new copies; Compute Engine copies VMs from machine images, snapshots and templates and publishes no fork.
Per-sandbox hostname and wildcard egress rules, enforced on the host outside the VM and applied live.
devbox:1 boots with Python, Node.js, Go, Rust, Docker and five coding-agent CLIs on PATH.
Where Google Compute Engine is strong
Per-second billing, custom machine shapes and a true suspend and resume that keeps memory state, on Google's global network.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You want a hosted sandbox API rather than building one on VMs
- You want to fork from a paused state for parallel agent runs
- You do not want a 1-minute minimum on every short job
Pick Google Compute Engine if
- You need custom machine shapes, memory-optimized VMs up to 12 TB, or A4 and A3 GPU series
- Your stack is on Google Cloud and you want one bill and one IAM model
- You need suspend with memory for long-lived VMs
Head-to-Head Comparison
Every dimension side by side, checked on 26 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 | Google Compute Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM |
| 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: gcloud CLI, REST API, client libraries (Go, Java, Python, Node.js and more) 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 | Yes: suspend moves memory to storage and resumes processes (not above 208 GB memory; max 60 days suspended) |
| Fork | Yes: fork a paused sandbox into new, independent sandboxes | No live fork published; machine images, snapshots and instance templates create copies |
| 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 | Open by default: implied allow-egress rule to any destination; implied deny-ingress |
| Billing granularity | Per second while running, no minimums: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour | Per second after a 1-minute minimum |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (8 / 8 Pro, 4 / 4 Beginner, 1 / 1 Free) | Memory-optimized machines with up to 12 TB of memory (see Sources) |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Yes: A4X Max, A4X, A4, A3, A2, G4 and G2 series |
Common Questions
Can Compute Engine suspend a VM with memory like CreateOS pause?
Yes, within limits. Suspend moves memory to storage and resumes running processes, but not for VMs above 208 GB of memory, and after 60 days suspended the VM is terminated. CreateOS pause also keeps memory and CPU state, and adds fork from the paused snapshot.
What does the Google Cloud free tier include for Compute Engine?
New customers get $300 of credit for 90 days, plus one always-free e2-micro VM per month in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, 30 GB-months of standard disk and 1 GB of outbound from North America. CreateOS Free gives 500 credits and one 1 vCPU / 1 GB sandbox.
Is outbound traffic restricted by default on Compute Engine?
No. VPC firewalls include an implied rule that allows egress to any destination and an implied rule that denies ingress. CreateOS sandboxes are also open outbound with no rules and closed inbound; adding one egress rule makes them deny-by-default.
Sources
Checked 26 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.