Modal vs RunPod Serverless

In short

• Both: Choice of models, API, Official SDKs, Runs models for you, Builds agents and workflows, Traces and evaluates
• Only Modal states: Agent that edits files
• Only RunPod Serverless states: Command line

Modal

Modal is a serverless cloud platform for running AI inference, training, batch jobs, and isolated code sandboxes.

Plans

Starter

Free

• $30 / month free compute
• 3 workspace seats included
• 100 containers + 10 GPU concurrency
• Scheduled and Web Functions (limited)
• Real-time metrics and logs
• Region selection

Team

• $250 + compute / month

• $100 / month free compute
• Unlimited seats
• 5000 containers + 50 GPU concurrency
• Unlimited Scheduled Functions
• Custom domains
• Static IP proxy

Enterprise

Price on request

• Volume-based discounts
• Unlimited seats
• Higher GPU concurrency
• Embedded ML engineering services
• Environment-level budgets
• Support via private Slack

Prices checked 2026-09-25 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

• Agent that edits files — “Autonomous agents with the right tools, context, and credentials already in place — running securely in a full, isolated dev environment.” source
• Choice of models — “Run any model or inference engine on H100s, A100s, A10Gs and more.” source
• API — “Serve your own LLM API” source
• Official SDKs — “Modal SDK” source
• Runs models for you — “Deploy and scale inference for LLMs, audio, image/video generation.” source
• Builds agents and workflows — “Designed to scale agents.” source
• Traces and evaluates — “Debug fast by zooming into metrics, logs, and live statuses of specific inference calls.” source

Latest updates

• 2026-09-17 Network egress usage broken down by app

  The Usage page now shows network egress per app.

• 2026-09-15 New controls for unauthenticated web endpoints

  Filter by authentication, audit unauthenticated deployments, and block them per environment.

• 2026-09-15 User groups for RBAC-enabled workspaces

  Assign environment roles to groups of members, created manually or synced from your identity provider via SCIM.

RunPod Serverless

RunPod Serverless deploys containerized AI inference endpoints that autoscale GPU workers and bill compute by the second.

Plans

B300

• $ 9.98 /hr

• Maximum throughput for big models.

B200

• $ 8.64 /hr

• Maximum throughput for big models.

H200

• $ 5.93 /hr

• Extreme throughput for big models.

RTX 6000 Pro

• $ 3.49 /hr

• High throughput for large model inference workloads.

H100

• $ 4.79 /hr

• Extreme throughput for big models.

A100

• $ 2.72 /hr

• High throughput GPU, yet still very cost-effective.

L40, L40S, 6000 Ada, MIG 48GB

• $ 1.75 /hr

• Extreme inference throughput on LLMs like Llama 3 7B.

A6000, A40

• $ 1.22 /hr

• A cost-effective option for running big models.

5090

• $ 1.58 /hr

• Extreme throughput for small-to-medium models.

RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell

• $ 1.15 /hr

• Cost-effective Blackwell inference for 32GB workloads.

Prices checked 2026-09-25 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

• Command line — “Deploy and manage directly from your terminal.” source
• Choice of models — “Instant access to pre-deployed AI models via API. No infrastructure setup required.” source
• API — “Serverless GPU endpoints run containerized inference workloads behind an API and scale workers based on demand.” source
• Official SDKs — “CLI & SDKs.” source
• Runs models for you — “Deploy any containerized model as an autoscaling GPU endpoint without managing servers.” source
• Builds agents and workflows — “Build intelligent agent-based systems and workflows.” source
• Traces and evaluates — “Runpod offers a comprehensive monitoring dashboard with real-time logging and distributed tracing for your serverless functions.” source

Latest updates

• 2026-09-15 Global Volumes - Beta

  Create a global volume once and mount it at startup across any region, with no copying data between data centers required.

• 2026-09-14 Nano Banana Edit

  The Nano Banana Edit public endpoint will be retired on September 28, 2026. Migrate to Nano Banana 2 Edit.

• 2026-09-10 Sales tax and tax ID support

  Runpod now collects sales tax on credit purchases in applicable jurisdictions. Add a business tax ID at checkout or in account settings.