CreateOS Sandbox vs Steel
Steel is the pick if you want a browser API you can also run yourself, since its Apache-2.0 core self-hosts with Docker. CreateOS Sandbox is the pick if the agent needs a whole Linux machine for code and long jobs; Steel sessions cap at 15 minutes on Launch, 1 hour on Scale and 24 hours on Enterprise.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Steel 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
Steel
Launch ($0/month) costs $0.10 per browser-hour with proxy at $10/GB, and Scale ($250/month) costs $0.08 per browser-hour with proxy at $6/GB, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Steel has the edge.
No lifetime cap on any plan, including Free, against Steel's 15-minute cap on its free Launch plan.
Agent code, tests and servers run directly in the VM, with an opt-in HTTPS URL to expose them.
Memory-state pause lets a long job stop and pick up later, with vCPU billing halted while paused.
Where Steel is strong
Steel's core is open source under Apache-2.0 and self-hosts with Docker, so the same browser API runs on a laptop, on your own servers or in Steel's cloud.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Agent work runs longer than Steel's plan caps.
- You need to run arbitrary code with shell and file access.
- You want an egress allowlist enforced outside the VM.
Pick Steel if
- You want to self-host the browser API on your own infrastructure today.
- You need CAPTCHA solving, dedicated IPs and profiles in a browser API.
- Your sessions fit inside the plan caps of 15 minutes to 24 hours.
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 | Steel |
|---|---|---|
| What you get (browser vs full Linux machine) | Full Linux micro-VM; the desktop:1 image adds an XFCE desktop, Google Chrome and a computer-use API | Browser sessions with profiles, files, extensions and credentials APIs |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | Each session is an isolated browser instance; mechanism not published |
| Session length | No lifetime cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Default 5 minutes; max Launch 15 min, Scale 1 hour, Enterprise up to 24 hours; a live timeout cannot be extended |
| Run arbitrary code | Yes: exec, shell, files and managed processes; devbox:1 ships Python 3.12, Node.js 24, Go, Rust and Docker | Runs a browser rather than arbitrary code |
| 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 | Open web; proxy bandwidth $10/GB (Launch) or $6/GB (Scale); allowlist controls not published |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr; no per-GB egress price, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | $0.10/browser-hour on Launch ($0/mo) or $0.08 on Scale ($250/mo), plus proxy and CAPTCHA fees |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Profiles API persists cookies and auth data across runs; pausing a live session not published |
| Interfaces | SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP server, REST API | Node and Python SDKs, Steel CLI, MCP cookbook, REST API, CDP for Puppeteer, Playwright and Selenium |
Common Questions
Can I self-host Steel?
Yes. Steel Browser is open source under Apache-2.0 and runs from a Docker image. CreateOS Sandbox self-hosting is Enterprise only and onboarded by the CreateOS team, so for a do-it-yourself browser server Steel is the easier route.
Can a Steel session be extended once it starts?
No. Steel's docs say a live session's timeout cannot be extended, so you set it at creation within your plan's cap. CreateOS sandboxes have no lifetime limit, and the idle auto-pause setting can be changed after the sandbox is created.
What does Steel charge per browser hour?
$0.10 per browser-hour on the $0 Launch plan and $0.08 on the $250/month Scale plan, plus proxy bandwidth at $10/GB or $6/GB. CreateOS charges per second for vCPU, memory and storage instead of per browser.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.