CreateOS Sandbox vs Instabox
Pick Instabox if you are prototyping a computer-use agent and want a free desktop VM with a shareable live view today. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if you need published prices, sizes other than 4 vCPU / 8 GB, egress rules, or a fork that carries memory.
Instabox says the service is free until the team settles a pricing plan and usage tracking.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Instabox 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
Instabox
Instabox is free, with five machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and says its pricing plan is not yet decided, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Instabox has the edge.
Published per-second prices you can budget against; Instabox has not set pricing yet.
Shapes from 1 vCPU / 1 GB to 8 vCPU / 16 GB; every Instabox machine is fixed at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Fork carries the paused sandbox's memory; Instabox copies machines through snapshots that hold files only.
Egress allowlists by host, IP, CIDR or wildcard; Instabox does not publish egress controls.
Where Instabox is strong
Every Instabox machine ships with a desktop and browser, a shareable and embeddable live view, and a true pause that keeps memory, so you can watch a computer-use agent and take over without extra setup, at no charge for now.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You need to budget from a published rate card.
- You want machines smaller or larger than 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
- You need to restrict where the agent can send traffic.
Pick Instabox if
- You want five free 4 vCPU / 8 GB desktop VMs to prototype with.
- You need an embeddable live desktop view to share with users.
- You can accept an early service with no price yet.
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 | Instabox |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Virtual machine with its own kernel and root (vendor-stated); hypervisor not published |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU billing stops, memory and storage still bill | Paused keeps files, memory and processes; auto-pause after 30 minutes idle by default |
| Fork | Forks a paused sandbox into many independent copies | No live fork; snapshots copy files only, no memory |
| 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 | Not published |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in HTTPS URL | Published ports get a public HTTPS URL anyone with the link can reach; SSH; shareable desktop viewer |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | Fixed 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 20 GB |
| Concurrency | 1 / 5 / 20 / 30 by plan (Free to Enterprise); paused sandboxes count | 5 free machines (vendor-stated); 32 concurrent API requests per user |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Optional timeout 60 to 86,400 s; no maximum published |
| 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 | Free; pricing not set |
| SDKs and interfaces | TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST | TypeScript SDK, REST API, CLI, agent skills |
Common Questions
How much does Instabox cost?
Nothing for now. Instabox states the service is free until it works out a pricing plan and usage tracking, with five free machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB. CreateOS Sandbox publishes per-second rates of $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, and a Free plan with 500 credits.
Does Instabox have a desktop for computer-use agents like CreateOS?
Yes. Every Instabox machine has a desktop and browser with a shareable live view. CreateOS Sandbox offers a desktop:1 image with an XFCE desktop, Google Chrome and remote desktop and computer-use APIs, which you choose per sandbox.
Can I copy an Instabox machine with its memory?
Not with memory. Instabox copies a machine by saving a snapshot and starting new machines from it, and snapshots hold installed software and /data files but not memory or processes. CreateOS Sandbox forks a paused sandbox including its memory state.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.