# InstaVM vs Runloop Devboxes

> Runloop Devboxes scores 60.1 (C) to InstaVM's 52.1 (D) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-runloop
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-runloop.md (~4,750 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Runloop Devboxes scores 60.1 (C) on agent readiness against InstaVM's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. InstaVM leads on reliability and transparency & trust. Both do code sandboxes.

- InstaVM: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #994 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instavm.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/instavm.json
- Runloop Devboxes: grade C, 60.1/100, rank #666 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 231 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md

## Which one, for what

### InstaVM (D)

Good for: Hosted microVM sandboxes with browser, desktop, OCI images, clones and public shares.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 77 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 57 against 52

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Runloop Devboxes loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The free plan's $50 credit needs a card on file, and signup is in a browser

### Runloop Devboxes (C)

Good for: Existing customers finishing work before 13 November 2026 and planning a move.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 51
- Security & auth, 60 against 41
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Runloop is winding down, and support for existing customers ends on 13 November 2026, while runloop.ai still invites free sign-ups with no notice


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Runloop Devboxes +48

- InstaVM (35): Closed service lines. The latest dated change found is Python SDK 0.26.1 on 15 July 2026, 114 days before the check, and the site changelog's only entry is 11 July (10). No SDK release in the 90 days to 6 November (0). A public changelog, support email and Discord, with no reply times seen (8 of 15). Official Python and JavaScript SDKs, last released in July and May 2026 (12 of 15). Package health of the SDK repositories was not read (5 of 10). Total 35.
- Runloop Devboxes (83): SDK 3.0.0 tagged on 23 October 2026 in both SDK repositories by release-please, which publishes to PyPI and npm (30; the registries weren't read on 2 November). Six SDK releases in the 90 days from 4 August (1.29.0 to 1.32.0 in August and September, 2.0.0 on 8 October, 3.0.0 on 23 October) (20). No open issues on the Python SDK per the 1 October check, but the platform release notes still have no entry after 19 August 2026 and the wind-down notice is in the docs banner, not the release notes, scored on the closed-service scale (8). Current official Python and TypeScript SDKs (15). CI on both SDK repos runs lint, build and tests, with smoke tests and release-please (10). 30+20+8+15+10 = 83.

### Payments & pricing: Runloop Devboxes +30

- InstaVM (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Per-second vCPU, memory and storage prices are published without a login (20). The free plan's $50 credit needs a card on file (0). Signup and key minting are in a browser dashboard (0). Total 20.
- Runloop Devboxes (50): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-second prices published for CPU, memory, disk and snapshot storage (20). $50 of trial credit and the trial page still says "no credit card is required to sign up" on 2 November, while the service winds down (20). Stripe Projects lists Runloop, so an agent can create the account through the operator's Stripe login, per the 1 October check (10).

### Schema & documentation: Runloop Devboxes +19

- InstaVM (66): A public OpenAPI 3.1 spec with 229 operations (25). llms.txt at instavm.io (10). Only 93 of 229 operations have a description, and those read as short summaries without when-not-to-use guidance (8 of 20). FastAPI-generated request schemas with typed fields and required lists (10 of 15). Docs carry code examples for each SDK area, but only 422 validation errors appear in the spec and no error-code reference was found (6 of 15). Paths sit under /v1 and an SDK changelog exists, but the site changelog has one entry, of 11 July 2026 (7 of 15). Total 66.
- Runloop Devboxes (85): Public OpenAPI at docs.runloop.ai/openapi-specs/stainless-processed-openapi.json (25). llms.txt (10). The docs explain the lifecycle, what suspend keeps (disk only) and when to use blueprints or snapshots (15). Typed fields with enums for sizes from X_SMALL to XX_LARGE and for idle actions (15). Examples in the API reference, and the SDK READMEs map 400, 401, 403, 404, 422, 429 and 5xx to typed errors, but the docs have no error-body reference (10). Platform release notes jump from 21 November 2025 to 19 August 2026 and had nothing newer on 2 October, while the SDK changelogs are kept by release-please with breaking changes marked (10).

### Security & auth: Runloop Devboxes +19

- InstaVM (41): Plain API keys in a header, with API endpoints to create, list and delete them and no scopes found (20 of 30). Egress policies per session or VM can block all outbound traffic or allow named domains and CIDRs, but llms.txt describes full network access as the default (8 of 20). No guidance on untrusted output from executed code or browser sessions (3 of 15). An Audit Logs endpoint group exists in the API reference (10 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found; the privacy policy names none (0 of 20). Total 41.
- Runloop Devboxes (60): Bearer API key on api.runloop.ai. We found no scopes or rotation guidance (20). Runloop's security page lists microVM isolation (10). Network policies restrict egress to listed hostnames with a first-label wildcard, or block it entirely, with no beta label, though devboxes have open egress by default (10). Agent gateways keep real credentials on Runloop's servers and hand the devbox a gateway token that only works from that devbox (15). No audit log, and no API-key or permissions page in the docs index (0). SOC 2 Type II, with the report on request. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found (5).

### Reliability: InstaVM +17

- InstaVM (77): Hosted lines. Better Stack status page with four components, including the public API (20). The incident history shows no incidents for September, October or November 2026 (30). No rate limits with numbers found; Pro promises higher limits without figures (0). The Python SDK has a RateLimitError and an example retry loop with exponential backoff, but no 429 or Retry-After is documented, and there is no idempotency guidance (7 of 15). The terms commit to 99.9% monthly uptime with service credits, and Pro lists 99.9% (10). No beta or preview label on the API (10). Total 77.
- Runloop Devboxes (60): Status page at status.runloop.ai, now on incident.io, with component history (20). Its feed (feed.rss) and incident pages hold three incidents in the 90 days from 4 August to 2 November 2026, each marked partial outage and under an hour (a Devbox Lifecycle outage of under a minute on 3 September, Devbox Lifecycle for 29 minutes on 2 October, the Blueprint component for 40 to 44 minutes on 5 October). Minor only (20). The 28 July terminations have left the window. No published rate limits, and the docs index has no rate-limit page (0). The official SDK READMEs document 429 as RateLimitError and retry it five times with exponential backoff, retrying POSTs only on 429 and GETs also on 408, 409 and 5xx. No Retry-After or API-level retry guidance found (10). No SLA found (0). GA (10). Runloop is winding down its services, with support for existing customers through 13 November 2026, and the score reads the service as it runs until then. 20+20+0+10+0+10 = 60.

### Agent ergonomics: Runloop Devboxes +15

- InstaVM (51): 30 operations take limit, offset, cursor or page parameters, with no field selection found (12 of 25). Listing endpoints page, with little filtering (10 of 20). The SDK maps failures to typed exceptions such as AuthenticationError, QuotaExceededError and RateLimitError, but the HTTP error bodies are undocumented (8 of 20). One operation takes an idempotency parameter, and snapshots and clones make work repeatable, with no safe-retry guidance (6 of 20). `client.execute(code=..., language=...)` needs two arguments, with Python and JavaScript SDKs (15). Total 51.
- Runloop Devboxes (66): Devbox objects are small and bounded, with no field selection (15). List calls take `limit` (default 20, maximum 5,000), a `starting_after` cursor and a status filter, and the SDKs auto-paginate (18). The SDKs raise a typed error per status code, RateLimitError for 429 among them, but there's no reference for the API's error bodies (10). No idempotency keys (the SDK's idempotency header is unset), though the SDKs only retry POSTs on 429, which keeps retries from repeating a create (8). Python and TypeScript SDKs and a CLI, an empty create body works, and keep-alive defaults to 1 hour (15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | InstaVM | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 60 | InstaVM +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 85 | Runloop Devboxes +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 66 | Runloop Devboxes +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 41 | 60 | Runloop Devboxes +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 50 | Runloop Devboxes +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +48 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 52 | InstaVM +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **52.1 · D** | **60.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | InstaVM | Runloop Devboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Checksum Labs, Inc. | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.instavm.io` | `https://api.runloop.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-15 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-01-26 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-26 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 57 npm/wk, 370 PyPI/wk | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### InstaVM

No score change since it was listed.

### Runloop Devboxes

- -4.7 on 2 November 2026 (B to C): company, negative event
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**InstaVM.** InstaVM runs agent code in hosted Firecracker microVMs through a public OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Python and JavaScript SDKs, with per-second prices, egress policies and a 99.9% uptime commitment in its terms. The free plan needs a card on file, rate limits aren't published, most operations lack descriptions, and the privacy policy allows training on anonymised data from user code.

**Runloop Devboxes.** Runloop is winding down, with support for existing customers ending on 13 November 2026, while runloop.ai invites free sign-ups without saying so. Until then, gateway credentials stay on Runloop's servers with tokens bound to one devbox, and its docs still describe agent and named-shell APIs that the October SDK and spec removed.

## Before you call either

### InstaVM

1. Send the key in the `X-API-Key` header to https://api.instavm.io; never put it in code run inside the VM
2. Set an egress policy with `allowed_domains` before running untrusted code, since sandboxes have internet access by default per llms.txt
3. Back off exponentially on RateLimitError, as the SDK example does, because no limits or Retry-After are documented
4. Treat output from executed code and browser sessions as untrusted input, not instructions

### Runloop Devboxes

1. Plan a move before 13 November 2026. Runloop is winding down, and the transition guides at https://docs.runloop.ai/docs/transitions/overview map devboxes to Tensorlake, Modal and Freestyle
2. Use SDK 3.0.0 and the OpenAPI file as the reference. The docs still show the Agents API and named shells, which 3.0.0 removed
3. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
4. Attach a network policy with `allow_all=False` before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
5. Set an idle policy (`idle_time_seconds` with `on_idle: suspend`) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, InstaVM or Runloop Devboxes?

Runloop Devboxes scores 60.1 (C) on agent readiness against InstaVM's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. InstaVM leads on reliability and transparency & trust.

### Do InstaVM and Runloop Devboxes need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call InstaVM and Runloop Devboxes without installing anything?

Yes. InstaVM has a hosted endpoint at https://api.instavm.io and Runloop Devboxes at https://api.runloop.ai.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-runloop.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-runloop.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "instavm", "b": "runloop"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare instavm runloop`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/instavm.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json

## Other comparisons with InstaVM or Runloop Devboxes

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-instavm.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-runloop.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-instavm.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Celesto (formerly SmolVM) vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celesto-vs-instavm.md)
- [Celesto (formerly SmolVM) vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celesto-vs-runloop.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-instavm.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-runloop.md)
- [Daytona vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-instavm.md)
- [Daytona vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-instavm.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-runloop.md)
- [E2B vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-instavm.md)
- [E2B vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-runloop.md)
- [Freestyle vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-instavm.md)
- [Freestyle vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-runloop.md)
- [InstaVM vs Maritime](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-maritime.md)
- [InstaVM vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
- [InstaVM vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [InstaVM vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-morph-cloud.md)
- [InstaVM vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-offscreen.md)
- [InstaVM vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [InstaVM vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [InstaVM vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-sprites.md)
- [InstaVM vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [InstaVM vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instavm-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Maritime vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-runloop.md)
- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-runloop.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Morph Cloud vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-runloop.md)
- [Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.md)
- [SPACE vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-runloop.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sprites.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-instavm.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-runloop.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs InstaVM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-instavm.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-runloop.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp