SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes vs Zipbox

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs. Zipbox 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

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

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

Field

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Zipbox

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Zipbox: Included
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Zipbox: No
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, 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

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Zipboxzipbox.ai/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572; Zipbox: Included
Storage: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go; Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096; Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:; Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed; Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

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

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Zipbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091; Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183; Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366; Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.
You want one rate for memory, with CPU included.

Zipbox fits when

You use the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.183 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You want to start without paying.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

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SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Zipbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

Zipbox fits when

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