CreateOS Sandbox vs Google Agent Runtime

If your agents are built with ADK or LangGraph and must stay inside a Google Cloud security perimeter, Agent Runtime gives you hosting, memory and sandboxes in one service. If the agent needs a general Linux machine with network access you control, your own packages and no 7 to 14 day expiry, CreateOS Sandbox fits better. Google's code-execution sandbox has no network at all, which is safer but narrower.

Google renamed Vertex AI Agent Engine to Agent Runtime within Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform; old docs URLs redirect.

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Pricing at a Glance

CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Google Agent Runtime 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 budgetvCPU stops billing while paused

Google Agent Runtime

Compute: $0.0850 /vCPU-hr
Memory: $0.0090 /GiB-hr

Google lists Agent Compute at $0.085/vCPU-h and Agent Memory at $0.009/GiB-h, billed per second, with the first 50 vCPU-h and 100 GiB-h free each month, as of 17 October 2026.

Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better

What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Google Agent Runtime has the edge.

No lifetime cap: a CreateOS sandbox runs until you destroy or pause it, while Agent Runtime sandboxes expire after 7 to 14 days.

Fork a paused sandbox into many copies; Agent Runtime publishes no fork, and code-execution sandboxes do not support snapshots.

Lower vCPU rate: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour on CreateOS against $0.085 on Agent Runtime, though Google's memory is cheaper at $0.009 per GiB-hour.

A full Linux image such as devbox:1 with Python, Node.js, Go, Rust and Docker preinstalled, where Google's code-execution sandbox does not let you install your own libraries.

Where Google Agent Runtime is strong

Agent hosting, sessions, long-term memory and sandboxes in one Google Cloud service, with VPC Service Controls, CMEK and HIPAA support, and code-execution sandboxes that start in under a second (vendor-stated) and keep state for up to 14 days.

Which to Pick

Pick CreateOS Sandbox if

Your agent needs a shell, package installs and outbound access to selected hosts.
Sessions may run for weeks, or must be forked into parallel attempts.
You want SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# or Java rather than Python only.

Pick Google Agent Runtime if

Your agents are built on ADK, LangGraph or LangChain and you want managed hosting plus memory on Google Cloud.
You need code execution with no network access at all, inside VPC Service Controls.
You need HIPAA or CMEK on the agent runtime.

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	Google Agent Runtime
Isolation	Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel	Secure container sandboxing (vendor-stated)
Pause and resume	Yes: disk, memory and CPU state saved; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill	Yes: pause releases compute and keeps disk and connection metadata; resume in seconds (vendor-stated)
Fork	Yes: fork a paused sandbox into many independent sandboxes	Not published; snapshots not supported for code-execution sandboxes
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	Code execution: no network access. Custom containers: configurable egress control
Inbound access	Closed by default; opt-in public HTTPS URL, plus API-authenticated shell and port tunnels	Code execution through the API only; custom containers declare exposed ports; Private Service Connect supported
Largest size	8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro	Not published (custom-container example uses 1 CPU / 500Mi)
Concurrency	1 / 5 / 20 / 30 concurrent sandboxes on Free / Beginner / Pro / Enterprise; paused sandboxes count	Project quotas, e.g. 100 maximum resources; sandbox-specific limits not published
Session length	No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default	TTL up to 14 days (code execution) or 7 days (custom container); billed while the sandbox exists
Billing	Per second while running: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr	Per second: $0.085/vCPU-h, $0.009/GiB-h; storage $0.30/GiB-month
SDKs and interfaces	TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST	Python SDK and REST API; ADK, LangChain, LangGraph, AG2, LlamaIndex

Common Questions

Can Google Agent Runtime code-execution sandboxes reach the internet?

No. Google documents no network access for code-execution sandboxes, while custom-container sandboxes can enable internet access through egress_control_config. A CreateOS sandbox is open outbound until you add a rule, and then only listed hosts, IPs or CIDR ranges pass.

How long does an Agent Runtime sandbox keep its state?

Up to 14 days for code-execution sandboxes and 7 days for custom-container sandboxes, with the TTL configurable and billing while the sandbox exists. CreateOS sets no lifetime cap; a paused sandbox keeps disk and memory, billing memory and storage until you resume or destroy it.

Is CreateOS Sandbox cheaper per hour than Google Agent Runtime?

On vCPU, yes: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour against Google's $0.085. On memory, Google is cheaper at $0.009 per GiB-hour against $0.01159025. Google also gives 50 vCPU-hours and 100 GiB-hours free each month, so very small workloads may cost nothing there.

Sources

Checked 17 October 2026.

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