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Shotcup vs Vercel Sandbox

Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVMs with Ubuntu. Shotcup: a fresh JavaScript engine per run, with hard limits and files back.

Which to pick

Pick Vercel Sandbox when

you need Linux next to a Vercel project: builds, package installs, or a coding agent's full workspace.

Pick Shotcup when

runs are many and short: Vercel Sandbox bills active CPU in one-minute minimum increments plus a fee per creation, and Shotcup prices a run, not a machine.

The facts, side by side

Shotcup and Vercel Sandbox compared
QuestionShotcupVercel Sandbox
What runs
  • A fresh GocciaScript engine per run in a pooled worker process, with a virtual filesystem. JavaScript only: no operating system, no npm at run time.
Start-up
  • Measured by us: 89.5 ms p50 server time for a whole run on shotcup.dev (2026-10-08), sandbox included.
How usage is billed
  • A monthly allowance of runs and compute-hours per plan; past it, opt-in overage of $0.05 per 1,000 runs and $0.08 per compute-hour under a spend cap.
  • Active CPU $0.128 per hour, memory $0.0212 per GB-hour, billed "in 1 minute minimum increments"; $0.60 per million creations; minimum 1 vCPU and 2 GB.vercel.com,
Free tier and entry plan
  • Free: 30,000 runs and 3 h of compute a month. Pro: $4.99 a month for 100,000 runs and 10 h.
  • Hobby includes 5 CPU-hours, 420 GB-hours and 5,000 creations; Pro has a $20 platform fee.vercel.com,
Concurrency and run length
  • 1 concurrent run on Free, 10 on Pro, up to 100 on Platform. A run lasts at most 5 s on Free and 5 min on Scale.
  • 10 concurrent on Hobby, 10,000 on Pro; sessions of 45 minutes on Hobby and 24 hours on Pro.vercel.com,
State between runs
  • Disposable by default; saved sandboxes keep their files between runs. Seeded clocks and randomness make runs repeatable, and a run that needs approval pauses and resumes.
MCP and agents
  • A hosted MCP server and a REST API on one key; a TypeScript SDK, an AI SDK sandbox and an eve provider.
  • Integrations with the AI SDK, OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs and others; no sandbox MCP server.vercel.com,

Vercel Sandbox's start-up figure is its own claim; we did not measure it. Prices change: follow the links for the current ones. Shotcup's figures are explained on the performance page and the pricing page.