# Rush vs Railway cloud agents

Railway runs the same CLIs Rush does, on a VM you keep. Rush runs them per task, behind an API, and returns the result.

Facts checked 17 October 2026. Prices and limits move. Read the citations.

**The short answer.** Pick Railway cloud agents for an interactive agent VM beside your Railway deploys. Pick Rush when work should start from an API and come back as a pull request.

## The useful distinction

Railway cloud agents: a persistent personal Railway VM where you run Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Grok CLI from the Railway CLI. Available through Priority Boarding.

The useful split is who builds the agent. Most products here run their own. Rush runs Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode, the vendors' own CLIs, and returns the result with the record of how it was made.

## Buyer questions

| Question | Rush | Railway cloud agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What runs | Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode, the vendors' own CLIs, or a saved agent built on one. | Claude Code, Codex, Grok CLI, Railway Agent and OpenCode, among others installed on the VM. |
| Isolation | One E2B microVM per run with its own disk, memory, desktop and browser. It parks between turns and is removed on cancel or after 7 idle days. | Each cloud agent is a personal virtual machine in a Railway project environment. The disk lasts the agent's lifetime; sleeping ends running processes. |
| Result and pull request | A run on a repository works on its own branch and opens the pull request; a run whose checks fail ends needs_review, not completed. Reports and files come back as artifacts. | No pull request flow documented for cloud agents beyond git and the GitHub CLI. The separate Railway Agent in the dashboard can open a fix pull request. |
| MCP | Rush is an MCP server at api.prix.dev/mcp with 18 tools. A run also takes MCP servers by connection or inline. | Railway ships an MCP server and agent skills for operating Railway. Cloud agents themselves are not documented as MCP. |
| Team | Everyone in the org sees the same Projects and runs, with who started each. Automations start runs from GitHub events, schedules, webhooks and Linear. | Agents are personal and hold your credentials. Admins can list members' agents. |
| Starting price | Free 5 agent-hours / month; Pro $20; Team $200 | Hobby $5 / month with $5 of usage; Pro $20 / month per workspace, seats unlimited |
| Where it taps out | Three harnesses. Repositories through the GitHub App only. No self-host or customer VPC. A key runs 4 at once by default, up to 100. | Priority Boarding only, and breaking changes may occur. No documented API to start one headless. VM size is fixed by plan. Agents are personal, not shared runs. |

## When each side wins

### Rush wins when

- You want an API: POST a task, get the session back, read the pull request or report.
- A run should park at no charge between turns instead of billing while awake with nobody connected.
- Teammates in the org see the same runs and who started them.

### Railway cloud agents wins when

- Your app already runs on Railway, and the agent should sit next to its services and deploys.
- You want a persistent VM you attach to over SSH or a desktop app, with a public HTTPS port.
- Pro's $20 is per workspace with unlimited seats.

## Where Rush sits

Both run the vendors' own CLIs. Railway gives you one personal VM to attach to. Rush gives each task its own sandbox behind POST /o/{org}/sessions, and the session record returns the branch, pull request and transcript.

## Skip Rush if

- Rush runs three agents: Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. It does not host an agent you wrote yourself.
- Repositories come through the Rush GitHub App. A GitLab or Bitbucket repository cannot be a run's repository yet.
- There is no self-hosted or customer-VPC deployment, and we do not publish a compliance report today.
- Compute is metered. Free includes 5 agent-hours a month and Pro 40, each with a weekly ceiling.
- You review the pull request. Rush does not merge for you.

## Questions people actually ask

### Does Railway have cloud agents?

Yes, through Priority Boarding as of 17 October 2026: a persistent personal VM running Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other CLIs, started from the Railway CLI. Railway's docs say breaking changes may occur.

### Can I move from Railway cloud agents to Rush?

Railway cloud agents are in Priority Boarding with no task API, so there is no workload to migrate yet. Repository instructions in CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md work on both.

### Does Rush need my own model account?

By default a run uses your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API key, and your provider bills the model calls. Rush meters the sandbox compute against your plan, and parked time is free.

## Keep reading

- [Railway cloud agents alternatives](https://getrush.ai/compare/railway-cloud-agents-alternatives.md)

## Sources

1. Rush, "Rush product requirements", retrieved 2026-09-15. https://getrush.ai/cloud
2. Rush, "Rush pricing (live contract on getrush.ai)", retrieved 2026-09-15. https://getrush.ai/pricing
3. Rush, "Isolation, plainly", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://getrush.ai/docs/concepts/isolation
4. Rush, "Results and proof", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://getrush.ai/docs/concepts/results-and-proof
5. Rush, "Usage and billing", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://getrush.ai/docs/concepts/usage-and-billing
6. Rush, "Rush MCP server", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://getrush.ai/docs/concepts/mcp-server
7. Rush, "Automations", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://getrush.ai/docs/concepts/automations
8. Railway, "Cloud agents", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://docs.railway.com/cloud-agents
9. Railway, "Getting started (Cloud agents)", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://docs.railway.com/cloud-agents/getting-started
10. Railway, "Railway Agent", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://docs.railway.com/ai/railway-agent
11. Railway, "AI (Railway docs)", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://docs.railway.com/ai
12. Railway, "Pricing", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://railway.com/pricing
13. Railway, "Railway for AI Agents", retrieved 2026-10-17. https://railway.com/agents
14. Railway, "Railway Agent sandbox, HA static egress, GitHub org guardrails", published 2026-05-22. https://railway.com/changelog/2026-05-22-chat-agent-sandbox