It’s a one-time credit for Small and Large VMs, added after approval and account setup. It’s valid for 14 days after you sign up and can’t pay the Starter subscription fee.
What is the founding price?
The first 30 Starter members keep $15.99 a month and $40 of monthly credit for as long as their subscription stays active. Cancel anytime and keep the plan until the end of the paid month.
How is compute billed?
A running VM uses credit by the second, including idle time, until it stops: about $0.05 an hour for Small and $0.15 for Large, with a one-minute minimum. Stopped VMs cost nothing. Starter’s $40 monthly credit is used first and resets each month. Starter subscribers can also top up any whole-dollar amount from $5 to $500, and top-ups never expire.
Is AI usage charged?
Not during early access. The agent’s AI usage is included, and you pay only for VM compute. Free accounts have a daily AI limit; Starter has none.
Why not just rent a VPS?
If you need a server running around the clock, a VPS costs less. BoxCompute is built for agent work: you pay by the second only while a VM runs, the AI agent, browser desktop and live previews come with it, and idle VMs stop on their own.