Smol Machines vs Zipbox

Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Smol Machines runs microVMs. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Smol Machines

Hosted Linux microVMs with their own kernel, for agents and untrusted code.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: $100 credit, one time
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Smol Machines 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

Smol Machines

Zipbox

vCPU, per hour: Smol Machines: $0.05; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: Smol Machines: $0.0162; Zipbox: Included
Storage: Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing: Smol Machines: Active CPU time only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation: Smol Machines: MicroVM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots: Smol Machines:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Smol Machines:; Zipbox: No
SDKs: Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go; Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations: Smol Machines: MCP; Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Smol Machinessmolmachines.com/pricingsmolmachines.com

Zipboxzipbox.ai/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Smol Machines: $0.05; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: Smol Machines: $0.0162; Zipbox: Included
Storage: Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from: Smol Machines: Pay as you go; Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing: Smol Machines: Active CPU time only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Smol Machines: Not listed; Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop: Smol Machines: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Smol Machines: Up to 1,000; Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: Smol Machines: MicroVM; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Smol Machines: No; Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots: Smol Machines:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Smol Machines:; Zipbox: No

Developer

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

Trust

License: Smol Machines: Apache-2.0; Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC: Smol Machines: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Smol Machines

Zipbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Smol Machines: $0.082; Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Smol Machines: $0.165; Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Smol Machines: $0.330; Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Smol Machines fits when

You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
You want the larger free credit: $100 against $25.
You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.

Zipbox fits when

You use Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

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Smol Machines

Zipbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Smol Machines fits when

Zipbox fits when

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