Runloop Devboxes vs Vercel Sandbox

Runloop Devboxes

Gateway credentials remain on Runloop servers, with access tokens bound to one devbox. Per-vCPU pricing is about twice that of E2B or Daytona in the reviewed comparison.

Vercel Sandbox

Active CPU billing, so waiting on model responses costs only memory. Tied to a Vercel team and project even when called from elsewhere, and access tokens reach the whole team.

Runloop Devboxes

1. Set an idle policy (idle_time_seconds with on_idle: suspend) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute
2. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
3. Attach a network policy with allow_all=False before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
4. Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
5. Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial

Vercel Sandbox

1. Call sandbox.stop() when the task is done. Memory bills until the session ends
2. Use Sandbox.getOrCreate with a name so retries land in the same sandbox
3. Set networkPolicy to deny-all for untrusted code. The default is allow-all
4. Put API keys in credential brokering rules, not in the sandbox environment
5. Pass persistent: false for one-off runs so no snapshot is stored or billed