Sailboxes vs Zipbox

Sailboxes costs $0.015 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Sailboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Sailboxes

Persistent Linux VMs for long-horizon AI agents.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $5 credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Sailboxes profile

Zipbox

Long-lived Firecracker microVMs for AI agents, each with its own desktop.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Max session: No limit

Visit site Zipbox profile

What is different

11 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

Field

Sailboxes

Zipbox

vCPU, per hour: Sailboxes: $0.015; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: Sailboxes: $0.008; Zipbox: Included
Storage: Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Sailboxes: $5 credit every month; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing: Sailboxes: Per second; Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation: Sailboxes: Full VM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots: Sailboxes:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Sailboxes:; Zipbox: No
SDKs: Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust; Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations: Sailboxes: Claude Code; Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Sailboxesdocs.sailresearch.com/pricingdocs.sailresearch.com

Zipboxzipbox.ai/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Sailboxes: $0.015; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: Sailboxes: $0.008; Zipbox: Included
Storage: Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Sailboxes: $5 credit every month; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from: Sailboxes: Pay as you go; Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing: Sailboxes: Per second; Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Sailboxes: No limit; Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop: Sailboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Sailboxes: Up to 5,000; Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: Sailboxes: Full VM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Sailboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots: Sailboxes:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Sailboxes:; Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs: Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust; Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations: Sailboxes: Claude Code; Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License: Sailboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC: Sailboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Sailboxes

Zipbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.031; Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.062; Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.124; Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Sailboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.
You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Zipbox fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use MCP, the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.062 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You want the larger free credit: $25 against $5.

More comparisons

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Sailboxes

Zipbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

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