SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes vs Shellbox

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Isolated microVMs for AI agents that fork from a saved snapshot, part of SF Compute Autoresearch.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: None
Max session: Not listed

Visit site SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes profile

Shellbox

Linux microVMs for developers and AI agents, made and controlled over SSH.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: No limit

Visit site Shellbox profile

What is different

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

Field

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Shellbox

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Shellbox: Included
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Shellboxshellbox.dev/#pricingshellbox.dev

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Shellbox: Included
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go; Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Shellbox:
Pause and resume: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Shellbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091; Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183; Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366; Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You use MCP.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

Shellbox fits when

You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need a sandbox larger than 4 vCPU · 8 GiB.

More comparisons

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SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Shellbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

Shellbox fits when

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