CreateOS Sandbox vs Oracle Cloud
Pick Oracle Cloud if you need long-running VMs, very large memory or GPU bare metal at low unit cost, especially next to Oracle databases. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if your agent needs a fresh, disposable machine per task that can pause with its memory intact and fork into copies. OCI gives you raw compute to build on; CreateOS gives you the sandbox lifecycle as an API.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Oracle Cloud 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
Oracle Cloud
- Compute
- $0.0150 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- See below
E5 compute lists at $0.03 per OCPU-hour (one OCPU is two vCPUs) plus $0.002 per GB-hour of memory, billed per second with a 1-minute VM minimum; Oracle's docs and its price list give different Ampere A1 Always Free allowances, so no figure is given, as of 26 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Oracle Cloud has the edge.
Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state so an agent resumes mid-task; the OCI pages checked describe no memory snapshot or pause.
Fork one paused sandbox into many independent copies through the fork endpoint, instead of building custom images or cloning volumes.
Opt-in public HTTPS URL with managed certificates, where OCI gives a public IP and leaves ports to your VCN security lists.
Per-second billing with no per-start minimum, against OCI's 1-minute minimum per VM.
Where Oracle Cloud is strong
Very low list prices for x86 and Arm compute, with E5 at $0.03 per OCPU-hour (two vCPUs) and 10 TB of free outbound data each month, far above what most hyperscalers include.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Each agent task needs its own throwaway machine that you create and destroy by API
- You want to snapshot a prepared environment and fork it into parallel copies
- You want hostname allowlists for outbound traffic enforced outside the VM
Pick Oracle Cloud if
- You run long-lived VMs, large-memory hosts or GPU bare metal such as H100 or H200 shapes
- You move a lot of data out and want the first 10 TB per month free
- Your stack already runs on Oracle databases or other OCI services
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 | Oracle Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM or dedicated bare-metal host |
| 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: OCI CLI, REST API, SDKs (Java, Python, Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, .NET, Ruby) 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 | No memory snapshot or pause/resume found in the pages checked; boot and block volumes persist across stop/start |
| Fork | Yes: fork a paused sandbox into new, independent sandboxes | No live fork published; launch new instances from custom images or cloned volumes |
| 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 | Default not published; governed by VCN security lists and NSGs you configure. Always Free tenancies block outbound TCP port 25 |
| Billing granularity | Per second while running, no minimums: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour | Per second, with a 1-minute minimum for VMs and 1-hour minimum for bare metal |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (8 / 8 Pro, 4 / 4 Beginner, 1 / 1 Free) | VM.Standard.E6.Flex up to 126 OCPUs (252 vCPUs) and 1454 GB; bare-metal shapes are larger |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Yes: A10, A100, H100, H200, L40S, V100 and P100 shapes |
Common Questions
Is Oracle Cloud cheaper than CreateOS Sandbox per vCPU-hour?
On list price, yes. OCI E5 is $0.03 per OCPU-hour, or $0.015 per vCPU-hour, while CreateOS charges $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour plus $0.01159025 per GiB-hour. OCI bills VMs with a 1-minute minimum per start; CreateOS bills per second with no minimum, which matters when an agent runs many short tasks.
Can the Oracle Cloud Always Free tier run agent code sandboxes?
It can run code, but it gives you small VMs, not a sandbox service. Always Free includes two E2.1.Micro instances and Ampere A1 hours, and Oracle can reclaim idle Always Free instances when usage stays under 20% for 7 days. CreateOS Free gives one 1 vCPU / 1 GB sandbox with no card required.
Does OCI let me pause a VM with its memory and resume it later?
Not in the Oracle pages reviewed for this comparison. Boot and block volumes persist across stop and start, but no memory snapshot feature was found. CreateOS Sandbox pause saves disk, memory and CPU registers; vCPU billing stops while paused, and memory and storage keep billing.
Sources
Checked 26 October 2026.
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