Tier Matrix

Tier Matrix

What each Box tier unlocks for this plugin.

Full reference at references/tier-matrix.md. Compliance posture at Compliance and Trust Center.

What's in every tier

These work on every Box plan — Personal through Enterprise Advanced:

• Upload / download / list files
• Folder structure
• Box file IDs (immutable, instant lookup)
• File versioning
• Filename + description search (subject to 10-min indexing lag)
• 409 conflict on duplicate filename
• Webhooks (Box's API; the plugin doesn't ship webhook code — see Webhooks Patterns)

Plan × capability matrix

Capability	Personal/Free	Business / Plus	Enterprise	Enterprise Plus	Enterprise Advanced
Max file size	250 MB	5 GB	50 GB	50 GB	50 GB
Storage	10 GB	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Custom metadata templates	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Body full-text search (≤10 KB/doc)	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Metadata Query API (instant, no lag)	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Box AI Ask, Extract, Text Gen	❌	✅ (AI Units)	✅ (1k included)	✅ (2k included)	✅ (20k included)
Multi-doc Ask (up to 25 files)	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Box Hubs + Hubs Q&A (up to 20k files)	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Box AI Studio agents	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Retention policies + legal holds	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Box Sign	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
SOC 1/2/3	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
HIPAA BAA available	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
FedRAMP Moderate	❌	❌	✅ (GovCloud)	✅ (GovCloud)	✅ (GovCloud)
FedRAMP High	❌	❌	❌	✅ (GovCloud add-on)	✅ (GovCloud)
DoD IL4, ITAR, EAR	❌	❌	❌	✅ (GovCloud add-on)	✅ (GovCloud)

How the plugin routes by tier

box-tier-detect probes and writes capabilities to _box-memory.json. Other skills read this to pick the right path.

Personal / Free

• Memory write: markdown + frontmatter only. No metadata template instance.
• Memory recall: _index.json lookup. No body search. No Box AI.
• Companion: local-inspection only (no Box AI Extract).
• Box AI features: not available.

Business / Business Plus

• Memory write: markdown + frontmatter + boxMemory metadata template instance.
• Memory recall: index → Metadata Query (via search_files_keyword + mdfilters) → body search.
• Companion: Box AI Extract for PDFs/images (if ai_extract_enabled: true).
• Box AI features: Ask, Extract, Text Gen (paid AI Units).

Enterprise / Enterprise Plus

• All Business+ features.
• Retention policies & legal holds available.
• Multi-doc Ask (Enterprise Plus): up to 25 files per call.
• Hubs Q&A (Enterprise Plus): up to 20k files indexed.

Enterprise Advanced

• All Enterprise+ features.
• AI Studio agents — persistent custom agents (box-ai-agent).
• 20,000 AI Units/month included.

Universal caveats (all tiers)

• Box Search has ~10 minute indexing lag. The plugin's index pattern sidesteps this.
• search_files_metadata MCP tool is broken (returns empty). Use search_files_keyword + mdfilters. See Operational Notes Note 1.
• OAuth scopes don't widen on tier upgrade. After plan change, reconnect Box MCP. See Operational Notes Note 2.
• Fresh metadata templates have a ~10 min warm-up window. See Operational Notes Note 3.
• Fresh Box Hubs have the same ~10 min warm-up window. See Operational Notes Note 7.

When to upgrade

For most agent-memory use cases on a single user's account, Personal works fine. Recall is sub-second via the index file pattern. Storage is 10 GB.

You start needing Business+ when:

• You want structured-field queries (kind:decision tag:auth) that scan thousands of memories instantly via Metadata Query API
• You want Box AI semantic recall via box-ai-recall
• You want OCR'd companions for PDFs/images via box-ai-extract
• You want Box Sign attestation on memories

You need Enterprise+ when:

• You handle regulated data — HIPAA / FedRAMP / ITAR — see Compliance and Trust Center
• You need retention guarantees beyond your own discipline
• Your customers' auditors will look at your substrate

You need Enterprise Advanced when:

• You want AI Studio Agents with locked guardrails
• Your workflows produce >2,000 AI Unit calls / month per workspace

See also

• box-tier-detect — how the plugin detects tier
• Compliance and Trust Center — per-regulation crosswalk
• Box AI Units — AI consumption model
• Source: references/tier-matrix.md