# ColdTally

> Independent price-and-change tracker for AI agent sandboxes and cloud browsers. Costs are computed per typical task from each provider's published rates; startup times come from ColdTally's daily benchmark. Order is computed from cost alone and cannot be bought.

Prices verified 2026-10-17. Startup measured 2026-10-18. These files are rebuilt whenever the data changes, and at least daily.

Current answers:

- Cheapest sandbox per task: Cloudflare Sandbox, $0.00754 (2 vCPU / 4 GiB for 5 min at 10% CPU; usage only, plan fees excluded; prices verified 2026-10-17).
- Fastest sandbox startup: E2B, median 225 ms over 10 runs (create + first command; measured 2026-10-18).
- Cheapest cloud browser per task: Browser Use, $0.00100 (one 3-min session; usage only, plan fees excluded; prices verified 2026-10-17).
- Fastest cloud browser startup: KERNEL, median 882 ms over 10 runs (create session + CDP connect + page load; measured 2026-10-18).

When you quote a figure, give its date and what it excludes. Costs are usage only: plan fees, free credits, storage, egress, proxies, CAPTCHA and LLM tokens are excluded. ColdTally does not combine cost and speed into one score; for "best value", read both rankings and weigh them for the user's workload. Values marked unverified could not be confirmed from the provider's own pages.

## Answers

- [Sandboxes](https://coldtally.com/answers/sandboxes.md): cost per task and startup time, ranked, side by side, with caveats and recent changes
- [Cloud browsers](https://coldtally.com/answers/cloud-browsers.md): cost per task and startup time, ranked, side by side, with caveats and recent changes
- [Changes](https://coldtally.com/answers/changes.md): pricing, plan, limit and terms changes, newest first, with sources
- [Everything in one file](https://coldtally.com/llms-full.txt): the three files above, concatenated

## Data

- [Rankings JSON](https://coldtally.com/data/rankings.json): both rankings for each category, with dates, exclusions and notes
- [Providers JSON](https://coldtally.com/data/providers.json): raw rates, plans, limits and isolation, each value with its source URL and fetch date
- [Benchmark JSON](https://coldtally.com/data/bench.json): the latest raw startup benchmark results
- [Changelog JSON](https://coldtally.com/data/changelog.json): raw changelog entries

## Optional

- [Methodology](https://coldtally.com/methodology/): how prices are collected, cost per task is computed and startup is measured
- [Startup times](https://coldtally.com/startup-times/): both startup boards on one page, with method notes
- [Calculator](https://coldtally.com/calculator/): change the task assumptions (runs in the browser)
- [Source data](https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data): CC BY 4.0, with the benchmark harness
- [RSS](https://coldtally.com/rss.xml): the changelog as a feed

---

# Sandboxes: cost per task and startup time

> ColdTally, https://coldtally.com/. Isolated machines where an agent runs code. Prices verified 2026-10-17. Startup measured 2026-10-18. Data CC BY 4.0: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data

Two separate rankings. Cost ranks by usage cost alone. Startup time is measured daily by ColdTally. They are not combined into one score: if a user asks for the best value, weigh both for their workload and say which you weighed. Quote each figure with its date and what it excludes.

## Cost per task

Task: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB sandbox for 5 minutes at 10% CPU utilization (most time spent waiting on the LLM). Mirrors Vercel's own "AI code validation" example. Plan fees, free credits, storage, egress, proxies, CAPTCHA and LLM tokens are excluded. Change the assumptions in the calculator: https://coldtally.com/calculator/

| # | Provider | Cost / task | Free tier | Lowest paid plan | Verified | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Cloudflare Sandbox | $0.00754 | No free tier for Containers. Workers Paid ($5/mo) includes 375 vCPU-min, 25 GiB-h memory, 200 GB-h disk. | $5/mo | 2026-10-17 | Instance standard-3 (2 vCPU / 8 GiB). Excludes Workers / Durable Objects charges and monthly included usage. Unverified: Separate pricing for Sandboxes 1.0 (if any). Unverified: Workers / Durable Objects charges per sandbox. |
| 2 | Vercel Sandbox | $0.00920 | Hobby: 5 active-CPU hours, 420 GB-hours, 5,000 creations per month. Personal/non-commercial use only per Vercel ToS. | $20/mo | 2026-10-17 | Changed 2026-10-17: Vercel Sandbox: downloaded data is free. |
| 3 | E2B | $0.01380 | Hobby: $0/mo, one-time $100 usage credit, no credit card. | $150/mo | 2026-10-17 | – |
| 3 | Daytona | $0.01380 | $200 in free compute, no credit card. | – | 2026-10-17 | Unverified: Not listed on the pricing page; not verified. |
| 3 | Blaxel | $0.01380 | Up to $200 in free credits; Tier 0 (free) allows 10 sandboxes. | $20/mo | 2026-10-17 | Assumes active for the full duration (upper bound). Pricing only (not benchmarked). Changed 2026-09-10: Blaxel acquired by Baseten; pricing and terms unchanged so far. |
| 6 | Modal | $0.01983 | Starter: $0/mo with $30/mo included compute. | $250/mo | 2026-10-17 | 1 physical core; billed on requested resources. Changed 2026-09-01: Modal: Shared Endpoints tokens billed from the first request, even on Starter. |

## Startup time

Timed from the create call until `echo ok` returns in the new sandbox (create + first command). 1 warm-up + 10 measured runs per provider, one at a time. Runner: GitHub Actions, Phoenix, US. Not pinned to a region, so network latency to each provider varies between runs. Sandbox and browser timings measure different steps and are not comparable with each other. Raw results: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data/blob/main/data/bench/latest.json

| # | Provider | Median | p95 | Runs ok | Size | Region | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| unranked | Cloudflare Sandbox | 169 ms | 279 ms | 10/10 | standard-1 (1/2 vCPU, 4 GiB) | LAX (not pinned) | Timed inside Cloudflare Sandbox's own network (a benchmark Worker), so it excludes network latency from the runner and is not ranked. Full round trip from the runner: median 746 ms. |
| 1 | E2B | 225 ms | 668 ms | 10/10 | default | default (not pinned) | – |
| 2 | Modal | 567 ms | 1,554 ms | 10/10 | 1 core (2 vCPU), 4 GiB | default (not pinned) | – |
| 3 | Daytona | 1,207 ms | 1,561 ms | 10/10 | default | us | – |

Not yet measured: Vercel Sandbox.

Pricing only, never benchmarked: Blaxel. Blaxel's terms prohibit publishing benchmarks or performance information about Blaxel (Terms & Conditions, restriction (f)).

## Side by side

| Provider | Cost / task | Cost rank | Startup median | Startup rank |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| Cloudflare Sandbox | $0.00754 | 1 | 169 ms | unranked |
| Vercel Sandbox | $0.00920 | 2 | not measured | – |
| E2B | $0.01380 | 3 | 225 ms | 1 |
| Daytona | $0.01380 | 3 | 1,207 ms | 3 |
| Blaxel | $0.01380 | 3 | pricing only | – |
| Modal | $0.01983 | 6 | 567 ms | 2 |

## Recent changes

- 2026-10-17 · Vercel Sandbox · first-observed: Vercel Sandbox: downloaded data is free. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-vercel-free-downloads/
- 2026-09-10 · Blaxel · ownership: Blaxel acquired by Baseten; pricing and terms unchanged so far. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-10-blaxel-baseten/
- 2026-09-01 · Modal · pricing: Modal: Shared Endpoints tokens billed from the first request, even on Starter. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-01-modal-shared-endpoints/

Full changelog: https://coldtally.com/answers/changes.md

---

# Cloud browsers: cost per task and startup time

> ColdTally, https://coldtally.com/. Hosted browsers an agent drives over CDP. Prices verified 2026-10-17. Startup measured 2026-10-18. Data CC BY 4.0: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data

Two separate rankings. Cost ranks by usage cost alone. Startup time is measured daily by ColdTally. They are not combined into one score: if a user asks for the best value, weigh both for their workload and say which you weighed. Quote each figure with its date and what it excludes.

## Cost per task

Task: One 3-minute cloud browser session, headless where the provider prices it separately, with no proxy, CAPTCHA or LLM costs. Plan fees, free credits, storage, egress, proxies, CAPTCHA and LLM tokens are excluded. Change the assumptions in the calculator: https://coldtally.com/calculator/

| # | Provider | Cost / task | Free tier | Lowest paid plan | Verified | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Browser Use | $0.00100 | One-time $1 credit for eligible signups, 10 concurrent sessions; top-ups from $5. | – | 2026-10-17 | Rounded up to whole minutes, 1-min minimum. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. Changed 2026-10-17: Browser Use: 50 concurrent sessions now unlock at $100 paid, down from $200. |
| 2 | KERNEL | $0.00300 | Free: $0/mo with $5/month usage credits, 5 concurrent browsers, no credit card. | $30/mo | 2026-10-17 | Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. Changed 2026-09-01: KERNEL: Terms of Service updated. |
| 3 | Cloudflare Browser Run | $0.00450 | Workers Free: 10 browser-minutes per day, 3 concurrent browsers, 1 new browser every 20 s. Workers Paid ($5/mo) includes 10 browser hours and 10 concurrent browsers a month. | $5/mo | 2026-10-17 | Unverified: Isolation between customers. Unverified: Docs say a fresh browser gives process-level isolation; isolation between customers (VM or container) isn't documented. |
| 4 | Steel | $0.00500 | Launch: $0/mo, $30 one-time credits, no credit card. | $250/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |
| 4 | Hyperbrowser | $0.00500 | Free: 5,000 credits ($5) included. | $30/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Free-plan concurrency. Unverified: Isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |
| 6 | Browserbase | $0.00600 | Free: 1 browser hour, 3 concurrent browsers, 15 min/session. | $20/mo | 2026-10-17 | Billing granularity unverified; computed per second. Unverified: Billing granularity / minimum session charge. Unverified: Session isolation mechanism not documented on the pricing page. |

## Startup time

Timed from the create call until the target page reaches DOMContentLoaded (create session + CDP connect + page load). 1 warm-up + 10 measured runs per provider, one at a time. Runner: GitHub Actions, Phoenix, US. Not pinned to a region, so network latency to each provider varies between runs. Sandbox and browser timings measure different steps and are not comparable with each other. Raw results: https://github.com/latent-signal/coldtally-data/blob/main/data/bench/latest.json

| # | Provider | Median | p95 | Runs ok | Region | Notes |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| unranked | Cloudflare Browser Run | 666 ms | 1,363 ms | 10/10 | LAX (not pinned) | Timed inside Cloudflare Browser Run's own network (a benchmark Worker), so it excludes network latency from the runner and is not ranked. Full round trip from the runner: median 777 ms. |
| 1 | KERNEL | 882 ms | 1,036 ms | 10/10 | us-east (not pinned) | – |
| 2 | Browser Use | 1,135 ms | 2,286 ms | 10/10 | default (not pinned) | – |
| 3 | Steel | 1,650 ms | 2,532 ms | 10/10 | iad | – |

Not yet measured: Browserbase, Hyperbrowser.

## Side by side

| Provider | Cost / task | Cost rank | Startup median | Startup rank |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| Browser Use | $0.00100 | 1 | 1,135 ms | 2 |
| KERNEL | $0.00300 | 2 | 882 ms | 1 |
| Cloudflare Browser Run | $0.00450 | 3 | 666 ms | unranked |
| Steel | $0.00500 | 4 | 1,650 ms | 3 |
| Hyperbrowser | $0.00500 | 4 | not measured | – |
| Browserbase | $0.00600 | 6 | not measured | – |

## Recent changes

- 2026-10-17 · Browser Use · limits: Browser Use: 50 concurrent sessions now unlock at $100 paid, down from $200. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-browser-use-concurrency-tiers/
- 2026-10-17 · Cloudflare Browser Run · baseline: Cloudflare Browser Run added; baseline captured. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-cloudflare-browser-run-added/
- 2026-09-01 · KERNEL · terms: KERNEL: Terms of Service updated. https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-01-kernel-terms/

Full changelog: https://coldtally.com/answers/changes.md

---

# ColdTally changelog

> Dated, sourced changes to pricing, plans, limits and terms for AI agent sandboxes and cloud browsers, newest first. A human checks each source before an entry is published. "baseline" means the provider was added. RSS: https://coldtally.com/rss.xml

## 2026-10-17 · Browser Use: Browser Use: 50 concurrent sessions now unlock at $100 paid, down from $200

Type: limits. Browser Use ties concurrency to total paid per project (one-time, not monthly). Its pricing page now says $100 paid unlocks 50 concurrent sessions; it said $200 when ColdTally captured the baseline earlier on 2026-10-17. The other tiers listed are $1,000 for 250, $5,000 for 500 and $25,000 for 1,000. The free starting point is still 10 concurrent sessions, and per-hour and per-minute rates are unchanged.

Sources: https://browser-use.com/pricing

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-browser-use-concurrency-tiers/

## 2026-10-17 · Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox: downloaded data is free

Type: first-observed. Vercel's Sandbox pricing page says data a sandbox downloads from the internet (packages, git repos, datasets) is free. Outbound data and exposed-port traffic are still billable. Effective date not stated; first observed on 2026-10-17.

Sources: https://vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox/pricing

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-vercel-free-downloads/

## 2026-10-17 · All providers: Baseline captured for 11 providers

Type: baseline. First verified snapshot of pricing, free tiers, limits and isolation for E2B, Daytona, Modal, Vercel Sandbox, Cloudflare Sandbox, Blaxel (pricing only), Browserbase, Steel, KERNEL, Browser Use and Hyperbrowser. Later entries are diffs against this baseline.

Sources: https://coldtally.com/methodology/

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-baseline/

## 2026-10-17 · Cloudflare Browser Run: Cloudflare Browser Run added; baseline captured

Type: baseline. ColdTally now tracks Cloudflare Browser Run (formerly Browser Rendering), Cloudflare's hosted headless Chromium for Workers. On Workers Paid ($5/mo) it includes 10 browser hours and 10 concurrent browsers a month, then $0.09 per browser hour and $2.00 per extra concurrent browser (monthly average of daily peaks). Workers Free gets 10 browser-minutes a day and 3 concurrent browsers. Sessions start from a Worker binding (@cloudflare/playwright or @cloudflare/puppeteer) or over CDP. Later entries are diffs against this baseline.

Sources: https://developers.cloudflare.com/browser-run/pricing/, https://developers.cloudflare.com/browser-run/limits/, https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-10-17-cloudflare-browser-run-added/

## 2026-09-10 · Blaxel: Blaxel acquired by Baseten; pricing and terms unchanged so far

Type: ownership. Baseten announced on September 10, 2026 that it has acquired Blaxel. Blaxel says the platform keeps running and existing API keys and credits remain valid, and that Baseten will add new products based on Blaxel's primitives over time. ColdTally rechecked Blaxel's pricing page and Terms and Conditions on 2026-10-17: no price, tier or free-credit changes, and the terms are still the December 10, 2025 version, including restriction (f) on publishing benchmarks, so Blaxel stays pricing-only here.

Sources: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260910783896/en/Baseten-Acquires-Blaxel-to-Build-the-Infrastructure-for-AI-Agents-in-Production, https://blaxel.ai/blog/blaxel-is-joining-baseten-to-build-the-future-of-agentic-infrastructure, https://blaxel.ai/pricing, https://blaxel.ai/legal/terms

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-10-blaxel-baseten/

## 2026-09-01 · KERNEL: KERNEL: Terms of Service updated

Type: terms. KERNEL's Terms of Service show "Last Modified: September 1, 2026". ColdTally has no earlier copy, so what changed is not known.

Sources: https://www.kernel.sh/docs/tos

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-01-kernel-terms/

## 2026-09-01 · Modal: Modal: Shared Endpoints tokens billed from the first request, even on Starter

Type: pricing. Per Modal's pricing FAQ, Starter's $30/month included compute doesn't cover Shared Endpoints. Tokens are billed from the first request. Modal says this took effect September 1, 2026.

Sources: https://modal.com/pricing

Entry: https://coldtally.com/changelog/2026-09-01-modal-shared-endpoints/