# Upstash Box Pricing

> **Source:** https://upstash.com/pricing/box
> **Format:** text/markdown — machine-readable pricing for agents and LLMs
> **Contact:** sales@upstash.com (Enterprise) · support@upstash.com (Support)

Upstash Box is a serverless compute platform. Standard boxes auto-pause when idle (no CPU charges).
Keep-alive boxes run continuously with fixed monthly pricing.
Currently running on AWS us-east-1.

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## Plan Overview

| Plan | Price | Concurrent Boxes | CPU Hours/Month | LLM Budget/Month |
|------|-------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Free | $0 | 10 | 5 | $1 |
| Pay as You Go | $0.10–$0.40 | 100 | Unlimited | $100 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |

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## Box Sizes (Pay as You Go)

| Size | vCPU | Memory | Disk | Usage Price | Keep-Alive Price |
|------|------|--------|------|-------------|-----------------|
| Small | 2 vCPU | 4 GB RAM | 5 GB | $0.1/active CPU hour | $8/month |
| Medium | 4 vCPU | 8 GB RAM | 10 GB | $0.2/active CPU hour | $16/month |
| Large | 8 vCPU | 16 GB RAM | 20 GB | $0.4/active CPU hour | $32/month |

**Storage:** $0.10 per GB/month (billed separately on Pay as You Go)

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## Free Tier

- Up to 10 concurrent boxes
- 5 CPU hours per month
- $1 LLM token budget per month
- After the LLM limit, API returns 400 Bad Request

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## Pay as You Go

- Up to 100 concurrent boxes (default quota, can be increased on request)
- $100 LLM token budget per month
- Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) supported for all LLM providers on all plans
- **Standard boxes:** auto-pause when idle, billed per active CPU hour
- **Keep-alive boxes:** fixed monthly price by size, stay on continuously

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## Enterprise

For teams that need custom limits, regional requirements, or dedicated support.

**Contact:** sales@upstash.com | https://upstash.com/enterprise

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## Frequently Asked Questions

### What does active CPU hour mean?

You are billed based on how much CPU your code actually consumes, measured in core-hours. For example, using 100% of 2 cores for one hour costs $0.2, while using 10% of a single core for one hour costs $0.01. When a standard box is idle with no CPU usage, no charges apply. Keep-alive boxes use fixed monthly pricing by size instead.

### What happens when a box is idle?

Standard boxes automatically freeze after inactivity. Storage is preserved, but running processes are stopped until the next request. When a new request comes in, the box wakes up automatically, similar to how AWS Lambda cold-starts on demand. No manual intervention is needed. Keep-alive boxes stay on continuously and use fixed monthly pricing by size instead of auto-pause behavior.

### How much do Keep Alive boxes cost?

Keep Alive boxes are billed with a fixed monthly price by size. This is the only charge for that Keep Alive box, so you are not billed separately for CPU or storage on it. Small costs $8/month, Medium costs $16/month, and Large costs $32/month.

### What is included in storage billing?

Storage is billed at $0.1 per GB per month and includes all data on disk, including snapshots. Storage limits are 5 GB for Small, 10 GB for Medium, and 20 GB for Large.

### What are the free tier limits?

The free tier includes up to 10 concurrent boxes, 5 CPU hours per month, and $1 of LLM token usage per month. After the token limit, the API returns 400 Bad Request.

### How does LLM token usage work?

Each box includes Upstash-provided LLM token usage for the built-in AI agent. On the Free plan, this is capped at $1 per month. On Pay as you go, the cap is $100 per month. After the limit is reached, you can either contact us to increase it or bring your own key (BYOK) for any LLM provider, which is available on all plans.

### Can I run more than 100 concurrent boxes?

Yes. The default quota for Pay as you go is 100 concurrent boxes. This is a soft limit that can be increased on request, similar to AWS service quotas. Just contact us and we'll raise your limit.

### Where are boxes hosted?

Boxes currently run on AWS us-east-1. We are planning to add more regions soon.

### Can I use my own Docker container?

Yes, custom Docker container support is planned and coming soon.