Modal vs Vast.ai: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Modal and Vast.ai to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Modal
6.7/10
Modal is a serverless cloud platform that runs Python code on GPUs and CPUs with per-second billing, aimed at teams building and serving AI applications.
Vast.ai
6.3/10
Vast.ai is a marketplace for renting GPU compute by the second from independent hosts and data centers, used for AI training, inference, and rendering.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.7/10 | 6.3/10 |
| Integration | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Cost | 5/10 | 9/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $250/mo Team | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $250/mo Team | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
Modal vs Vast.ai cost by team size
| Team size | Modal | Vast.ai |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeStarter | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | $250/moTeam | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | $250/moTeam | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | $250/moTeam | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | $250/moTeam | Contact for pricing |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Modal
- Has a free plan (Vast.ai does not)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (7/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose Vast.ai
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 7/10)
Pros & Cons
Modal
Pros
- GPUs from the T4 up to the B300 are available without quota requests or reservations, and workloads can burst to thousands of containers.
- Per-second billing and scale-to-zero mean idle bursty inference workloads cost nothing.
- Python developers define infrastructure in code and deploy with a single CLI command, with no Kubernetes or Dockerfiles needed.
- The free Starter plan includes $30 a month of compute, and startup and academic credit programs are available.
- Sandboxes support large numbers of concurrent isolated environments for AI agents and untrusted code.
Cons
- Always-on or steady workloads can cost more than reserved GPU rentals from providers such as RunPod or Lambda.
- Containers stay billable for 60 seconds after the last request by default, and keep-warm settings are a common source of bill surprises.
- Region pinning raises prices by 1.15 to 1.75 times, and non-preemptible execution by 3 times.
- SSO, audit logs, and HIPAA support are limited to the custom-priced Enterprise plan.
- Credits from AWS, GCP, or Azure cannot be applied to Modal usage.
Vast.ai
Pros
- Marketplace rates for H100 and RTX 4090 run well below RunPod, Lambda, and AWS in mid-2026 reviews
- Per-second billing with no contracts or minimum hours
- Wide hardware choice across 68+ GPU types and 40+ data centers
- Secure Cloud filter limits results to vetted ISO 27001 data center hosts
Cons
- Reliability varies by host, and reviewers report disconnections
- No platform uptime SLA on standard marketplace instances
- Reviewers describe support as limited and inconsistent
- Storage is billed while instances are stopped, and bandwidth costs extra, which raises the real cost
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Modal scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.7/10 against 6.3/10 for Vast.ai. The largest gap is in Cost: 5/10 for Modal and 9/10 for Vast.ai.
Modal has a free plan; Vast.ai does not list one.
Modal is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 7/10 for them, against 4/10 for Vast.ai.
