Upstash Box vs Zipbox

Upstash Box costs $0.10 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Upstash Box runs containers. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Upstash Box

Isolated cloud containers that give AI agents a computer.

Isolation: Container
Free tier: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Upstash Box 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

Upstash Box

Zipbox

vCPU, per hour: Upstash Box: $0.10; Zipbox: $0.00685
Storage: Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing: Upstash Box: Active CPU time only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation: Upstash Box: Container; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots: Upstash Box:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Upstash Box:; Zipbox: No
SDKs: Upstash Box: Python, TypeScript; Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations: Upstash Box: LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, 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

Upstash Boxupstash.com/pricing/boxupstash.com

Zipboxzipbox.ai/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Upstash Box: $0.10; Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour: Upstash Box: Included; Zipbox: Included
Storage: Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.; Zipbox: Free
Free tier: Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month; Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from: Upstash Box: Pay as you go; Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing: Upstash Box: Active CPU time only; Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Upstash Box: Not listed; Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop: Upstash Box: After 360 minutes; Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB; Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Upstash Box: Up to 1,000; Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: Upstash Box: Container; Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Upstash Box: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots: Upstash Box:; Zipbox: No
Pause and resume: Upstash Box:; Zipbox: No

Developer

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

Trust

License: Upstash Box: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC: Upstash Box: Not listed; Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Upstash Box

Zipbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Upstash Box: $0.100; Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Upstash Box: $0.200; Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Upstash Box: $0.400; Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Upstash Box fits when

You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Zipbox fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use the Claude Agent SDK or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.200 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

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Upstash Box

Zipbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Upstash Box fits when

Zipbox fits when

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