> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zode.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Pricing > What Zode charges for compute and storage, what each plan includes, and how billing works per second. You pay for compute while a sandbox runs and for the storage it holds. Plans add a monthly fee, included usage and higher limits. Prices are in US dollars. ## Compute Compute costs **\$0.00875 per vCPU-hour**, billed per second while a sandbox is running. Each vCPU comes with 2 GB of RAM at no extra charge. | Size | vCPU | RAM | Disk | Per hour | Per 8-hour day | | - | - | - | - | - | - | | small | 2 | 4 GB | 50 GB | \$0.0175 | \$0.14 | | default | 4 | 8 GB | 50 GB | \$0.035 | \$0.28 | | large | 8 | 16 GB | 110 GB | \$0.070 | \$0.56 | | xlarge | 16 | 32 GB | 250 GB | \$0.140 | \$1.12 | A stopped sandbox costs nothing for compute. `zode new` without `--size`, the API and SDK without `vcpus`, and the MCP `sandbox_create` tool without `size` all make a **small** sandbox. The size named `default` (4 vCPU) is not the default; you only get it by asking for it. ## Storage Storage is free for the first 48 hours of every sandbox, forks included. After that it costs **\$0.10 per GB-month** of the sandbox's disk size, running or stopped, until you delete it. A GB is 10⁹ bytes and a month is 730 hours; storage is prorated per second. A sandbox you delete within 48 hours of creating it pays no storage at all. | Size | Disk | Storage per month, after the first 48 hours | | - | - | - | | small | 50 GB | \$5.00 | | default | 50 GB | \$5.00 | | large | 110 GB | \$11.00 | | xlarge | 250 GB | \$25.00 | > [!WARNING] > > Stopping a sandbox ends its compute charge, not its storage charge. Once a sandbox is 48 hours old, it pays for storage until you delete it. Delete sandboxes you no longer need. ## AI usage AI calls from a sandbox go out on your own provider keys. They are not on your invoice, and Zode adds no markup. Usage reports have a column for AI spend by repository, branch and pull request, but it reads \$0 for now: the hosts do not record AI calls yet. ## Plans | | Free | Pro | Team | Enterprise | | - | - | - | - | - | | Monthly fee | \$0 | \$20 | \$100 | Contract | | Included usage | \$10 one-time credit, no card to start | \$20 a month, no rollover | None | Contract | | Sandboxes running at once | 2 | 15 | 50 | Per contract | | Browser (Chrome over CDP) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Linux desktop | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Custom images kept / building at once | 3 / 1 | 20 / 2 | 100 / 4 | Unlimited | | Flight recorder retention | 7 days | 30 days | 90 days | 90 days | | Audit log CSV export | No | No | Yes | Yes | * **Included usage** covers compute and storage. On Pro, the \$20 resets each month; unused usage does not carry over. Usage past it is billed at the rates above. * **Free credit**: $10, once. Your Personal workspace has it from sign-up, with no card. A team workspace starts with $0 and gets its \$10 when its first card is saved. * **Running at once** counts sandboxes that are creating, running or starting. Over the limit, a create, fork or start fails: "Your free plan runs at most 2 sandboxes at once. Stop one first." * **Desktop on Free** fails with `plan_required` (402): "the free plan does not include the desktop; upgrade in Billing". A workspace on Free can start a 7-day Pro trial in **Billing** once. During the trial the workspace gets Pro's limits: 15 sandboxes running at once, 20 custom images kept and 2 building at once, and the desktop. Pro's fee and included usage do not apply, and nothing is charged when it ends. The trial needs no card; its sandboxes run on the workspace's credit (see below). ## When credit runs out To run sandboxes, a workspace needs a payment method on file or credit left. A workspace with no card whose remaining credit is \$0 or less: * cannot create, fork or start sandboxes. Those calls fail with HTTP 402 `credit_exhausted`: add a card or buy credit in **Billing**. * has its running sandboxes stopped within about 15 minutes. They are hibernated like any [stop](https://docs.zode.dev/concepts/sandboxes.md#stop-or-delete), never deleted, and a [`balance.low`](https://docs.zode.dev/concepts/webhooks-and-telemetry#event-types) event lists them. Saving a card or buying credit lifts the block at once. Stopped sandboxes stay stopped until you start them. Your Personal workspace starts with \$10, so your first sandboxes need no card. Add one in **Billing** before the credit runs out to keep sandboxes running. Workspaces with a card keep running when credit runs out, and usage past the included amount is invoiced monthly. Enterprise workspaces are billed by contract and are never stopped for credit. ## What is billed per second | Item | Billed while | Rate | | - | - | - | | Compute | The sandbox is running | \$0.00875 per vCPU-hour | | Storage | The sandbox exists, running or stopped, from 48 hours after create | \$0.10 per GB-month of disk size | | AI provider spend | Never | Shown, not billed | Creating, stopping, starting, forking and snapshotting have no fee of their own. A fork is a running sandbox and bills compute like any other. ## Caps You can bound spend before it happens: * **Per sandbox**: `max_cost_micros` on create or fork (`maxCostMicros` in the SDK), in micro-dollars, where \$1 is 1,000,000. It counts only the sandbox's AI calls through Zode, not its compute or storage. The host keeps the running total in memory, so a host restart starts it again from zero. A workspace can set a default for new sandboxes. * **Per workspace per day**: a daily cap in **Billing**. Once today's spend reaches it, creates, forks and starts fail with `daily_cap_reached` until 00:00 UTC or until you raise it. See [Spend and caps](https://docs.zode.dev/concepts/spend-and-caps.md) for what happens when a cap is reached. ## Check your spend ```bash theme={null} zode cost ``` ```text theme={null} 2026-11-05 to 2026-11-11 UTC, as of 2026-11-11 11:04 billed $0.006163 compute $0.003293 storage $0.002870 AI $0.000000 in 0 calls, shown, not billed sandboxes 0.188 h, peak 2 at once, 7 forks (p95 17876 ms) events 0 OOM kills, 0 breaker trips REPO BILLED AI HOURS (none) $0.006163 $0.000000 0.188 ``` The console's **Usage** page and `GET /v1/usage` show the same numbers. See [zode cost](https://docs.zode.dev/cli/cost.md). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.