CreateOS Sandbox vs Perplexity SPACE
Pick SPACE if you want to run your own Firecracker sandbox platform under Apache-2.0, or Perplexity's sandbox tool if the model only needs Python and bash inside an Agent API call. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if you want a managed microVM you create, pause, fork and destroy yourself over an API, with any image and outbound rules enforced outside the VM.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Perplexity SPACE 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
Perplexity SPACE
The Agent API sandbox tool costs $0.03 per session (a 20-minute billing window) plus model tokens, and each search from inside it costs $0.0025; SPACE itself is free software you host, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Perplexity SPACE has the edge.
Managed for you: create a microVM over REST, six SDKs, a CLI or MCP, in the eu or us region. SPACE is software you deploy and operate on your own Kubernetes hosts.
Pause, resume and fork are API calls on any sandbox you own. Pause keeps disk, memory and CPU state, and fork copies a paused sandbox into many independent sandboxes, each with its own IP.
Any image, including devbox:1 with agent CLIs and Docker installed, and desktop:1 with Chrome and a computer-use API. The Agent API sandbox tool runs Python and bash.
Outbound traffic is open until you add a rule, then deny-by-default for hosts, IPs and CIDRs, enforced on the host outside the VM. The Agent API sandbox tool documents network access but no allowlist.
Where Perplexity SPACE is strong
SPACE runs Perplexity Computer in production at millions of sandbox creations per day (vendor-stated), and it is now open source under Apache-2.0, so you can read the isolation code and run it inside your own infrastructure. Perplexity also describes an egress proxy that adds credentials outside the sandbox, so code inside never sees raw keys.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You want a managed sandbox API without running Kubernetes hosts yourself.
- You need pause, resume and fork on sandboxes you control, from any image.
- Your agent needs a desktop with Chrome and a computer-use API.
Pick Perplexity SPACE if
- You want to self-host an open-source Firecracker sandbox platform and have the team to operate it.
- Your agent already runs on Perplexity's Agent API and only needs short Python or bash runs.
- You want credentials added by an egress proxy so sandboxed code never holds the keys.
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 | Perplexity SPACE |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Firecracker microVM per sandbox (SPACE); the Agent API tool is documented as an isolated container |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | SPACE pauses the VM with a full snapshot and resumes it from that state; disk snapshots are taken frequently (vendor-stated) |
| Fork | Fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies | Sessions can branch from snapshots (vendor-stated); how to fork is not published |
| Outbound network default | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Agent API tool: network access available, no allowlist documented |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise, 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | Not published |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 seconds to 24 hours | Agent API tool: each execution has a runtime cap; sessions bill in 20-minute windows |
| Billing | $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, per second; 1 vCPU and 1 GB for 20 minutes is about $0.016 | $0.03 per Agent API sandbox session plus tokens; SPACE is free software and you pay for your own hosts |
| SDKs and interfaces | REST; TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java SDKs; CLI; MCP | SPACE HTTP API when self-hosted; the sandbox tool is called by the model inside Agent API requests |
| Self-host or BYOC | Enterprise only, onboarded by our team | SPACE is open source (Apache-2.0) with setup docs for running it yourself |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Not published |
Common Questions
Can I self-host Perplexity's SPACE?
Yes. Since 15 October 2026 SPACE is open source under Apache-2.0, and its guide covers installing it on Kubernetes. You then run and secure the hosts yourself. CreateOS Sandbox is managed in the eu and us regions, and runs on your own hardware only for enterprise customers, onboarded by our team.
Is Perplexity's sandbox tool cheaper than CreateOS Sandbox?
For one short job they are close. The Agent API sandbox tool costs $0.03 per session, a 20-minute billing window, plus model tokens. A 1 vCPU, 1 GB CreateOS sandbox running for 20 minutes costs about $0.016, billed per second, with no token charge.
Does Perplexity offer a standalone Sandbox API?
Not as a public product yet. Perplexity announced a Sandbox API in March 2026 as coming soon, with a private beta to follow, and its roadmap still lists it. A self-hosted SPACE exposes its own HTTP API. CreateOS Sandbox is a public API today, with SDKs in six languages.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.