Cloudflare Sandbox vs AWS AgentCore
Cloudflare Sandbox runs a container per sandbox inside the Workers platform, sleeps it when idle and wakes it on the next request. AWS AgentCore is an AWS platform for hosting agents, with short microVM sessions, managed Code Interpreter and Browser tools, and longer sessions on EC2 in your own account.
The companies and products
Cloudflare Sandbox
Cloudflare Sandbox SDK runs untrusted or AI-generated code in Linux containers on Cloudflare's network, driven from a Cloudflare Worker.
Each sandbox is a Cloudflare Container backed by a Durable Object, and each container runs in its own Firecracker microVM with its own kernel and network. You build a linux/amd64 image, pick an instance type of up to 4 vCPU and 12 GiB, and reach the sandbox through your own Worker. It suits teams already on Workers who want short-lived sandboxes that sleep when idle; for code that only calls known methods, Cloudflare also offers Dynamic Workers, which run JavaScript in V8 isolates.
- Largest instance
- 4 vCPU, 12 GiB memory, 20 GB disk (defaults, can be raised)
- Account limits
- 1,500 vCPU, 6 TiB memory and 30 TB disk running at once
- Compliance
- Cloudflare holds a SOC 2 Type II report
AWS AgentCore
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is a set of AWS services to deploy and run AI agents: a Runtime that hosts your agent code, plus built-in Code Interpreter and Browser tools.
AgentCore is not a sandbox product first. It is a hyperscaler's agent platform: you push a container image or code, and each Runtime session gets its own Firecracker microVM that you reach through AgentCore APIs. Around it sit managed tools (Code Interpreter, Browser) and services for memory, identity, gateways and evaluations, and an Instances compute type runs longer sessions on EC2 in your own account. It is built for teams who already build on AWS and want agents to stay inside their account, IAM and VPC.
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “13th cheapest of 345” means 12 of the other 344 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | Cloudflare Sandbox: price rank | AWS AgentCore: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Neither fits a coding agent fully: Cloudflare wipes the disk on sleep and AgentCore keeps only a small storage mount, while bochka ranks 3rd with a full machine that keeps its disk. | 162nd of 367, with limits $1,543 a month | 100th of 367, with limits $888 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB AWS AgentCore ranks 64th against Cloudflare's 207th because Instances sessions can run up to 14 days, but both reset files outside what you save; bochka ranks 5th and keeps its whole disk. | 207th of 366, with limits $2,188 a month | 64th of 366, with limits $1,300 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Both fit short code runs well and bill CPU only while it is busy; AWS AgentCore ranks 7th and Cloudflare Sandbox ranks 13th. | 13th cheapest of 345 $144 a month | 7th cheapest of 345 $114 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Cloudflare Sandbox ranks 9th because previews and egress rules come through your Worker, while AgentCore sessions have no open ports for your users; bochka ranks 1st. | 9th cheapest of 361 $731 a month | 210th of 361, with limits $506 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 144th of 360, with limits $9,428 a month | 125th of 360, with limits $8,075 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 45th cheapest of 364 $818 a month | 33rd cheapest of 364 $650 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Cloudflare caps disk at 20 GB by default and runs Docker with iptables turned off, so it fits CI less well than AgentCore; bochka ranks 4th with full Docker and /dev/kvm. | 301st of 377, with limits $704 a month | 52nd cheapest of 377 $399 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Cloudflare fits a dev box better than AgentCore, which has no SSH and resets packages outside its storage mount, though Cloudflare still starts from a fresh disk after sleep. | 70th cheapest of 368 $93 a month | 228th of 368, with limits $52 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither ships a full desktop: Cloudflare removed its built-in one and AgentCore Browser drives only a browser; bochka ranks 6th with a 60fps desktop and computer use. | 166th of 369, with limits $460 a month | 104th of 369, with limits $202 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month AWS AgentCore ranks 4th with a managed Chromium, live view and session replay, while Cloudflare has no built-in browser; bochka ranks 7th with Chromium on a full machine. | 210th of 367, with limits $233 a month | 4th cheapest of 367 $144 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 250th of 346, with limits $286 a month | 27th cheapest of 346 $287 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 169th of 338, with limits $5,741 a month | 165th of 338, with limits $5,458 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 239th of 360, with limits $325 a month | 62nd of 360, with limits $294 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Cloudflare Sandbox | AWS AgentCore | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM per container, own kernel and network | Firecracker microVM per Runtime session; Code Interpreter and Browser in a containerized environment | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Biggest machine | 4 vCPU / 12 GiB / 20 GB disk by default (can be raised) | 2 vCPU / 8 GB per microVM session, not adjustable; bigger EC2 types only on Instances | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| Session length | No fixed maximum; stops after inactivity, and host restarts can stop it at any time | Up to 8 hours per lifecycle on microVMs, 15 idle minutes by default; up to 14 days on Instances | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| What survives a stop | Nothing by default: the disk is fresh after sleep unless your code saves a snapshot or an R2 backup | One storage mount under /mnt, up to 1 GB, in preview; EBS volumes on Instances; the rest resets | The whole disk, saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Snapshots and fork | On-demand snapshots (public beta, kept 30 days); no fork | No user snapshots or fork of a session | Automatic snapshots every minute; fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker inside | docker:dind with iptables and IP forwarding turned off | Root inside the microVM with arm64 images; Docker not documented | Full Docker, root and systemd |
| Nested virtualization | Not documented | Not documented | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Browser and desktop | Built-in desktop removed in SDK 0.10.2; bring your own | Managed Chromium with live view, session recording and replay, profiles and proxies; no full desktop | Full Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, with Chromium and a computer-use API |
| Inbound traffic | HTTP and WebSocket previews routed through your Worker; no raw TCP or public IP | No open ports or SSH; sessions reached only through AgentCore APIs with IAM or JWT | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; SSH |
| Egress rules | allowedHosts deny-by-default list plus outbound handlers you write in Worker code | Security groups in VPC mode; no per-request HTTP rules | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Private networking | No private network into your own cloud | VPC mode with security groups, PrivateLink and a NAT gateway for a fixed outbound IP | Open internet with its own IPv6 or IPv4 |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Your outbound handler adds the token for any HTTP or HTTPS host; you write the code | AgentCore Identity stores OAuth tokens and API keys and hands them to your agent code | Managed proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Coding agents | Run Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Pi in your image; OpenCode has an SDK helper | AWS's own managed harness built on Strands Agents, or your own agent code | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| GPUs | No | NVIDIA G-series and Inferentia2 on the Instances type | No |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Cloudflare Sandbox | AWS AgentCore | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | No | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | No | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Not published | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
Neither Cloudflare Sandbox nor AWS AgentCore has a result on the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js build-and-test loop, so there is no CPU number to compare between them. bochka did 26.69 runs per second on that loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Cloudflare Sandbox and AWS AgentCore have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | Cloudflare Sandbox, a month | AWS AgentCore, a month | bochka, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $39 · Workers Paid · with limits | $26 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $148 · Workers Paid · with limits | $107 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $1,660 · Workers Paid · with limits | $1,286 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $476 · Workers Paid | $423 · Pay-as-you-go · with limits | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $1,889 · Workers Paid · with limits | $1,615 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Cloudflare Sandbox: You need Workers Paid ($5 a month minimum). CPU is billed only while busy; memory and disk are billed on the instance size until the container sleeps, and 4 vCPU always comes with 12 GiB, with Durable Object and Worker requests on top.
AWS AgentCore: Runtime microVMs, Code Interpreter and Browser bill per second for CPU actually used and for peak memory. The 4 vCPU shape in these scenarios is the Instances type: the EC2 on-demand price plus a 12% fee, with EBS storage and data transfer billed on top.
AWS AgentCore: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. You pay per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Cloudflare's disk resets after sleep and tops out at 20 GB by default, so the scenarios that keep 50 GB of files do not fit, and its 1,500 vCPU account limit is short of the 2,000 vCPU the 1,000-job burst needs unless Cloudflare raises it. AgentCore needs the Instances type for a 4 vCPU agent, where sessions stop at 14 days and only the storage mount or an EBS volume keeps files. For sandboxes your users open, AgentCore is a code interpreter with no open ports, so it does not fit. bochka fits every scenario except the burst, where its plan queues starts above 90 a minute.
| Scenario | Cloudflare Sandbox | AWS AgentCore | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Cloudflare Sandbox when
your app already runs on Workers and you want short sandboxes that sleep when idle, wake on the next request and follow egress rules you write in code.
- Egress rules you can program. Cloudflare can block every host except the ones you list, and run your own code on each outbound HTTP request.
- Sleeps when idle, wakes on request. Useful for many short, spiky sessions: a sandbox sleeps when idle, wakes on the next request, and bills CPU only while busy.
- Previews and a bigger box than a microVM session. Your users can open a sandbox's app through HTTP previews, and one sandbox can use up to 4 vCPU and 12 GiB.
Use AWS AgentCore when
your agents must stay inside your AWS account and VPC, need a GPU, or are short code and browser tasks that fit its managed tools.
- It lives inside your AWS account. Teams built on AWS keep agents behind their own IAM, VPC, security groups and PrivateLink, in 17 commercial regions.
- GPUs and two-week sessions on Instances. Agents that need a GPU or a session of up to 14 days can run on EC2 in your account.
- A managed browser for agents. AgentCore Browser gives agents a managed Chromium with live view, session recording and replay, saved profiles and proxies.
Where bochka fits
Both Cloudflare Sandbox and AgentCore are built around short sessions that start clean. If your agents work for hours on one machine, installing packages, building with Docker and running the app they make, look at bochka: each agent gets a full VM that keeps its disk and can be opened from outside.
A disk that stays put
On Cloudflare a sleeping sandbox comes back with a fresh disk unless your code saved a snapshot or backup, and on AgentCore only a 1 GB mount survives. bochka saves the whole disk every minute and can fork a running sandbox.
A whole machine, not a small box
Cloudflare tops out at 4 vCPU and 20 GB of disk with iptables off for Docker, and an AgentCore microVM stops at 2 vCPU and 8 hours unless you run EC2 in your account. bochka gives up to 16 vCPU with Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm.
Open what the agent builds
Cloudflare previews go through Worker code you write and take no raw TCP, and AgentCore sessions have no open ports at all. bochka gives each sandbox HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
Use bochka when your agents do real work on one machine for hours: installs, builds, Docker, emulators and a desktop, with a disk that keeps everything and URLs you can open. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Cloudflare Sandbox and bochka vs AWS AgentCore.
Questions people ask
Is Cloudflare Sandbox cheaper than AWS AgentCore?
In all five scenarios on this page, AgentCore's estimate is lower, for example $1,286 against $1,660 a month for 50 agents in parallel. Its 4 vCPU shapes use the Instances type, with EBS storage billed on top. bochka costs less than both in four of the five.
Which is faster, Cloudflare Sandbox or AWS AgentCore?
There is no comparable measurement: neither was part of the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run. bochka scored 26.69 runs per second there at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can Cloudflare Sandbox or AgentCore run Docker?
Cloudflare supports docker:dind with iptables and IP forwarding turned off, because containers cannot change iptables. AgentCore runs your arm64 image as root, but its docs do not say Docker works inside a session. bochka runs full Docker with systemd and /dev/kvm.
Do files survive when a session stops?
On Cloudflare the next start uses a fresh disk unless your code saved a snapshot (public beta, kept 30 days) or an R2 backup. On AgentCore only a storage mount under /mnt, up to 1 GB and in preview, or an EBS volume on Instances survives. bochka keeps the whole disk.
How long can a session run?
Cloudflare sets no fixed maximum, but stops a sandbox after inactivity and does not promise any run time. AgentCore microVM sessions last up to 8 hours, and Instances sessions up to 14 days. bochka has no session cap on paid plans.
Where do they run?
Cloudflare places containers in several regions of its network and picks the nearest free one. AgentCore runs in 17 commercial AWS regions plus GovCloud. bochka runs in the EU only, in Germany, Finland and France.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
Product preview
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