GPU cloud · head to head

Modal vs RunPod

What each costs, whether there's a free plan, and what each is best for, from prices checked on their own sites.

Modal and RunPod at a glance
Fact	Modal	RunPod
From	$1.10/hr	$0.34/hr
Free plan	Yes · $30/month of free credits on the Starter plan	No · No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up
Best for	Serverless GPUs for Python: pay per second while your code runs.	GPU cloud with on-demand pods, a cheaper Community Cloud and serverless GPU endpoints.
Checked	Oct 17, 2026	Oct 17, 2026
Website	Visit	Visit

The difference in short

Modal plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
B200	$6.25/hr	—	Published only per second: $0.001736/sec. Hourly = x3600, exact arithmetic. GPU price only; CPU and memory billed separately. VRAM not stated on the pricing page.
H200 SXM	$4.54/hr	—	Published $0.001261/sec; hourly = x3600 exactly. GPU only. VRAM not stated on the pricing page.
H100 SXM5	$3.95/hr	—	Published $0.001097/sec; hourly = x3600 exactly. GPU only. H100 is 80GB, but the pricing page does not state VRAM.
A100 80GB	$2.50/hr	—	Published $0.000694/sec; hourly = x3600 exactly. A100 40GB is $0.000583/sec = $2.0988/hr.
L40S	$1.95/hr	—	Published $0.000542/sec; hourly = x3600 exactly. L40S is 48GB, but the pricing page does not state VRAM.
A10	$1.10/hr	—	Published $0.000306/sec; hourly = x3600 exactly. Also listed: L4 $0.000222/sec ($0.7992/hr), T4 $0.000164/sec ($0.5904/hr), RTX PRO 6000 $0.000842/sec ($3.0312/hr), B300 $0.001972/sec ($7.0992/hr).

RunPod plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
RTX 4090 24GB (Secure Cloud)	$0.89/hr	6 vCPU · 41 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud price for the same GPU is $0.34/hr. Page default view is Secure Cloud; toggle switches to Community Cloud.
L40S 48GB (Secure Cloud)	$1.09/hr	16 vCPU · 94 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $0.79/hr.
A100 80GB PCIe (Secure Cloud)	$1.79/hr	A100 PCIe · 8 vCPU · 117 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $1.19/hr. A100 SXM 80GB (16 vCPU, 125 GB RAM) is also $1.79/hr Secure, $1.39/hr Community.
H100 80GB SXM (Secure Cloud)	$3.99/hr	H100 SXM · 20 vCPU · 125 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $2.69/hr. H100 PCIe 80GB (16 vCPU, 188 GB RAM) is $2.89/hr Secure, $1.99/hr Community. H100 NVL 94GB $3.19/hr Secure, $2.59/hr Community.
H200 141GB (Secure Cloud)	$5.29/hr	24 vCPU · 276 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $3.59/hr.
B200 180GB (Secure Cloud)	$7.99/hr	28 vCPU · 283 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $5.98/hr.
RTX 4090 24GB (Community Cloud)	$0.34/hr	—	Community Cloud: GPUs in vetted third-party data centres, cheaper than Secure Cloud.
RTX 5090 32GB (Secure Cloud)	$1.19/hr	9 vCPU · 35 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $0.69/hr.

Cheapest first where the prices compare.

Which is cheaper, Modal or RunPod?

RunPod costs less to start: $0.34/hr against $1.10/hr for Modal. Prices checked Oct 17, 2026 on each company's own site.

Do Modal and RunPod have a free plan?

Modal: Yes. $30/month of free credits on the Starter plan. RunPod: No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up.

What else should I compare with Modal and RunPod?

Other GPU cloud options we've checked: TensorDock ($0.35/hr), Vast.ai ($0.49/hr), DigitalOcean GPU Droplets ($0.76/hr), Hyperstack ($1.35/hr).

Built from the prices and facts we checked on each company's own site. We haven't tested either hands-on.How we work