CreateOS Sandbox vs RunsOn
RunsOn is the cheapest way to get big, fresh GitHub Actions runners if you already run an AWS account. CreateOS Sandbox is for agent code outside CI: hosted for you, created by API, and able to pause, fork and expose a URL.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. RunsOn 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
RunsOn
RunsOn licenses cost €0 for non-commercial use, €300 per year under 50k jobs per month, up to €3,600 per year for Sponsorship, with EC2 billed by AWS at cost (RunsOn cites about $0.0009 per minute for 2 vCPU spot), as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where RunsOn has the edge.
Hosted: nothing to deploy or operate in your own cloud account.
Exec on demand by API and SDK, outside any GitHub Actions job.
Pause with memory, fork from paused and an opt-in HTTPS URL; RunsOn runners are ephemeral and take no inbound traffic.
Where RunsOn is strong
RunsOn is the cheapest way to get large, fresh EC2 runners for GitHub Actions: spot pricing at AWS cost with no per-minute markup, any instance type from 1 to 896 vCPUs (vendor-stated) including GPUs, and everything stays inside your own AWS account.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You want sandboxes without operating cloud infrastructure.
- Agents need stateful sessions that pause and resume.
Pick RunsOn if
- You run heavy GitHub Actions workloads and already have an AWS account.
- You want any EC2 instance type, including GPUs, per job.
- Credentials and data must stay in your own VPC.
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 | RunsOn |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Sandboxes created by API for agent and untrusted code | Cheaper, faster GitHub Actions jobs on EC2 in your AWS account |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM: a fresh, ephemeral EC2 instance per job |
| Trigger model (pipeline vs API) | API call from REST, SDK, CLI or MCP | GitHub Actions runs-on labels; deployed with CloudFormation or Terraform |
| Session length | No session length cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | GitHub Actions job limits apply; RunsOn limit not published |
| Pause and resume | Yes: pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Not applicable: ephemeral instance per job |
| Outbound network | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Your VPC's network configuration; RunsOn default not published |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, storage $0.0001584 per GB-hour | Flat annual license (€0 to €3,600) plus EC2 billed by AWS at cost |
Common Questions
Does RunsOn charge per minute?
No. RunsOn charges a flat annual license by jobs per month, from €300 per year, and AWS bills the EC2 instances to your account at cost, with no RunsOn markup. CreateOS bills per second for sandbox vCPU, memory and storage.
Who operates RunsOn infrastructure?
You do. RunsOn deploys into your own AWS account with CloudFormation or Terraform, and runners launch there. CreateOS is a hosted service; running it on your own hardware or cloud account is an enterprise option onboarded by our team.
Can RunsOn run agent code outside GitHub Actions?
RunsOn runners execute GitHub Actions jobs, so agent code would have to run as a workflow job. CreateOS sandboxes are created directly by REST or SDK and accept exec, files and shell sessions at any time.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.