Deno Sandbox vs Google Agent Runtime
Deno Sandbox gives code a small Firecracker microVM with root that starts in under 200 ms and lives up to 30 minutes. Google Agent Runtime hosts your agent code on Google Cloud and gives it sandboxes that run as an unprivileged user for up to 7 days.
The companies and products
Deno Sandbox
Deno Sandbox is part of Deno Deploy, the hosting platform from the company behind the Deno runtime, and runs untrusted or AI-generated code in Linux microVMs.
Each sandbox is a Firecracker microVM with 2 vCPU, up to 4 GB of memory and a 10 GB disk that is wiped when it ends, created from a TypeScript or Python SDK. Outbound traffic goes through a proxy that can enforce a host allowlist and swap placeholder secrets for real ones. It is built for short runs of agent or user code, and a sandbox can be promoted to a Deno Deploy app.
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM per sandbox
Google Agent Runtime
Google Agent Runtime is the agent hosting part of Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform on Google Cloud, renamed from Vertex AI Agent Engine in April 2026.
It is a hyperscaler service, not a sandbox company. Agent Runtime deploys agents you build with ADK, LangGraph, LangChain, AG2 or LlamaIndex and bills them only while they work on a turn. Next to it, Agent Sandbox gives those agents a place to run code: a Code Execution sandbox, a shell or custom container sandbox, and a Computer Use browser. All of them run as secure containers inside your Google Cloud project.
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. “290th cheapest of 367” means 289 of the other 366 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 | Deno Sandbox: price rank | Google Agent Runtime: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory needs hours, root and Docker: Deno stops after 30 minutes at 2 vCPU, Google has no root or Docker, and boat has all of it on a full VM. | 290th of 367, with limits $5,665 a month | 295th of 367, with limits $5,801 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Google keeps a sandbox for up to 7 days, which beats Deno's 30 minutes for a long-lived assistant, while boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 287th of 366, with limits $5,803 a month | 28th cheapest of 366 $7,519 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: Deno starts in under 200 ms and bills CPU only while code runs, and Google's Code Execution sandbox is a ready Python interpreter. | 141st of 345, with limits $329 a month | 254th of 345, with limits $275 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 Deno gives each exposed port a public HTTPS URL but caps Builder at 20 sandboxes at once per region; Google has no public URL, and boat serves token-protected HTTPS on up to 50 ports. | 148th of 361, with limits $1,863 a month | 280th of 361, with limits $1,916 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 | 122nd of 360, with limits $7,963 a month | 128th of 360, with limits $8,240 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 | 296th of 364, with limits $1,563 a month | 79th cheapest of 364 $2,060 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 CI jobs that build containers need Docker, which Google's sandboxes do not offer and Deno does not document; boat runs Docker and systemd on every VM. | 304th of 377, with limits $731 a month | 98th cheapest of 377 $989 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Deno has SSH but a 30-minute lifetime, Google has no SSH at all, and boat gives you SSH, a desktop and a disk that stays. | 179th of 368, with limits $200 a month | 311th of 368, with limits $241 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 Google offers a browser with a VNC view and a click and type API, Deno has no desktop, and boat streams a full Linux desktop at 60fps. | 280th of 369, with limits $1,583 a month | 283rd of 369, with limits $1,648 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 Google ships a real Chromium you can drive over CDP, while on Deno you would install a headless browser yourself in 4 GB of memory. | 284th of 367, with limits $783 a month | 102nd of 367, with limits $824 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 | 286th of 346, with limits $573 a month | 53rd cheapest of 346 $515 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 | 247th of 338, with limits $11,923 a month | 210th of 338, with limits $8,240 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 | 251st of 360, with limits $367 a month | 260th of 360, with limits $412 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 | Deno Sandbox | Google Agent Runtime | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel | Secure container sandboxing inside your Google Cloud project | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Root and Docker | Root access; Docker and nested virtualization not documented | Runs as appuser with no sudo; images must not need root; no Docker | Root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Machine size | 2 vCPU fixed, 768 MB to 4 GB memory, 10 GB disk | Runtime: 1 to 8 vCPU and up to 32 GiB; sandbox maximum not published | 4 vCPU / 8 GB by default, up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB from the $100 plan |
| How long a sandbox lives | Up to 30 minutes | TTL of up to 7 days for a custom container, 14 days for Code Execution | No session cap on paid plans |
| Files after it ends | Root disk wiped; opt-in volumes of 300 MB to 20 GB, Chicago only | Pause keeps the file system; the sandbox is deleted when its TTL ends | Whole disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Snapshots and branching | Read-only volume snapshots that new sandboxes can boot from | Snapshots keep memory and files; start many sandboxes from one | Fork a running sandbox with its disk; resume reboots from disk |
| Shell access | SSH and a browser VS Code editor | execute_bash() API calls, each in a new shell; no SSH | SSH, plus an API for commands |
| Reaching what it serves | Public HTTPS URL per exposed port, without authentication | Google's API or a private endpoint in your VPC; no public URL | HTTPS on up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP |
| Desktop and browser | No desktop or browser | Browser in a container with a VNC view, click and type API and CDP | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps with Chromium and computer use |
| Outbound rules | Host allowlist per sandbox, enforced by a proxy outside the VM | Off unless the template turns it on; route through your VPC firewall | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Keeping API keys out | Placeholder secrets swapped for real ones on approved hosts | You provision and scope the credentials the agent uses | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch accounts when credits run out |
| Coding agents | Root image with Claude Code, run through shell commands | Managed Agents API (Preview) runs Google's Antigravity harness | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Hosting agent code | A sandbox can be promoted to a Deno Deploy app | Deploys ADK, LangGraph and other agents; idle time between turns not billed | You run your own agent loop inside a sandbox |
| Start time and regions | Under 200 ms; Amsterdam and Chicago | Start time not published; 23 locations worldwide | Boots a full VM; EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Deno Sandbox | Google Agent Runtime | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Docker inside | Not published | No | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | No | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Not published | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | No | 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
There is no comparable measurement for Deno Sandbox or Google Agent Runtime. boat did 26.69 runs per second on StarSling's Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB; neither of the other two was in that run, and Deno's fixed 2 vCPU shape could not run that test as set up.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Deno Sandbox and Google Agent Runtime 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 | Deno Sandbox, a month | Google Agent Runtime, a month | boat, 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 | $53 · Pro · with limits | $73 · Pay as you go | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $200 · Builder · with limits | $301 · Pay as you go | $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 | $2,779 · Builder · with limits | $3,626 · Pay as you go · 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 | $783 · Builder · with limits | $1,030 · Pay as you go | $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 | $1,563 · Builder · with limits | $2,060 · Pay as you go | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Deno Sandbox: Sandboxes need Deno Deploy Pro at $20 a month or Builder at $200 a month, with CPU and memory allowances shared with Deploy apps. Past those, CPU costs $0.10 per hour of active CPU time and memory $0.025 per GiB-hour for the whole life of the sandbox.
Google Agent Runtime: Google bills $0.085 per vCPU-hour and $0.009 per GiB-hour allocated, with the first 50 vCPU-hours and 100 GiB-hours free each month. Sandboxes bill while they exist, Runtime skips idle time between turns, and disk and egress rates are not published.
Google Agent Runtime: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Deno Sandbox fits none of the five scenarios as written: it lives up to 30 minutes at a fixed 2 vCPU, and Builder allows 20 sandboxes at once per region. Google fits four of them but leaves disk and egress unpriced, and it cannot run the 50-agent fleet because its sandboxes have no Docker. boat fits four of five; at 1,000 short jobs at once its starts are capped at 90 a minute and 2,400 a day, so the jobs queue.
| Scenario | Deno Sandbox | Google Agent Runtime | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Deno Sandbox when
you run short pieces of untrusted code that must start in milliseconds, reach only hosts you allow, and maybe go live on Deno Deploy.
- Fast starts, billed by active CPU. Good for short bursts of code: a sandbox starts in under 200 ms and CPU bills only while code runs.
- Root and a public URL. Useful when code needs root or a quick preview: Deno gives root, SSH and a public HTTPS URL per port.
- Secrets kept out by a proxy. Good for untrusted code: a proxy outside the VM allows only listed hosts and swaps in real secrets there.
Use Google Agent Runtime when
you build agents with ADK or LangGraph on Google Cloud and want them hosted inside your own project, network rules and regions.
- A managed home for agent code. Useful if you build with ADK or LangGraph: Agent Runtime hosts your agents and skips idle time between turns.
- Sandboxes that last for days. Fits longer tasks than Deno allows: a sandbox can live up to 7 days and snapshot its memory to branch.
- Inside your Google Cloud network. Useful if agents must stay in your Google Cloud perimeter, with egress off by default, in 23 locations.
Where boat fits
Deno Sandbox is built for short runs and Google Agent Runtime for agents that live inside Google Cloud. If your agents do real work for hours, with installs, Docker, a desktop and something to show people, boat gives each one a full VM that keeps its disk.
Root, Docker and /dev/kvm
Google sandboxes run without sudo or Docker, and Deno does not document Docker. An agent that runs apt install, docker compose or an Android emulator has to work around that or run elsewhere; boat has root, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm.
A machine that stays
A Deno sandbox ends after 30 minutes and wipes its root disk, and a Google sandbox is deleted when its 7-day TTL runs out. boat has no session cap on paid plans, saves the disk every minute and can fork a running sandbox.
Agents, desktop and URLs built in
Deno has no desktop and Google has only a browser and no public URL. boat ships Claude Code, Codex and other agents you drive from outside, a 60fps desktop, and HTTPS on 50 ports, so people can open what agents build.
Use boat when your agents need a real computer for hours or weeks: root, Docker, SSH, a desktop and public URLs on a full VM that keeps its disk, with coding agents built in. Compare it one to one: boat vs Deno Sandbox and boat vs Google Agent Runtime.
Questions people ask
Is Deno Sandbox cheaper than Google Agent Runtime?
On paper, yes, in every scenario we priced: one agent on workdays comes to $53 a month on Deno and $73 on Google, and sandboxes for your users $783 against $1,030. But Deno does not fit any of those scenarios as written, because of its 30-minute lifetime, 2 vCPU size and 20-at-once cap. boat comes to $20 and $200 for the same two.
Which is faster?
Neither Deno Sandbox nor Google Agent Runtime has a comparable CPU measurement. Deno says a sandbox starts in under 200 ms. boat did 26.69 runs per second on StarSling's Node.js benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can Deno Sandbox or Google Agent Runtime run Docker?
Google's sandboxes cannot: commands run as appuser with no sudo, and images must not need root. Deno gives root but its docs do not say Docker or nested virtualization works. boat runs Docker and systemd and exposes /dev/kvm on every VM.
How long can a sandbox run on each?
A Deno sandbox lives up to 30 minutes and wipes its root disk when it ends. A Google sandbox can live up to 7 days for a custom container or 14 days for Code Execution. A boat sandbox has no session cap on paid plans.
Is Google Agent Runtime the same as Vertex AI Agent Engine?
Yes. Google renamed Vertex AI Agent Engine to Agent Runtime in April 2026, as part of Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Its code, shell and browser sandboxes are a separate part called Agent Sandbox.
Can either serve a web app to the public?
Deno gives each exposed port a public HTTPS URL, without authentication. Google's docs describe only its API or a private endpoint in your VPC. boat serves HTTPS on up to 50 ports, token-protected by default, and accepts raw TCP.
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