Modal

Modal is a serverless cloud platform for AI and data workloads. Modal lets developers write ordinary Python and run it on remote GPUs and CPUs with sub-second cold starts, instant autoscaling, and declarative container images. The platform's primitives — Functions, Sandboxes, Volumes, Images, Secrets, Dicts, Queues, Schedules, and Web Endpoints — cover inference, fine-tuning, multi-node training, batch processing, agent code execution, and HTTP/web APIs. Modal sells per-second metered compute across the full NVIDIA GPU lineup (T4 → B200) under Starter, Team, and Enterprise plans. Modal Labs raised a $355M Series C in 2026 and is used in production by Decagon, Runway, Physical Intelligence, Suno, Chai Discovery, Lovable, Quora, Reducto, and many others.

9 APIs 22 Features

ServerlessGPUCloud ComputeAI InfrastructureSandboxesInferenceTrainingBatch ProcessingPythonTypeScriptGo

APIs

Modal Functions API

Modal Functions are the core serverless primitive — Python functions backed by autoscaling container pools. They support optional GPU attachment (T4 through B200), Modal-built c...

Modal Sandboxes API

Modal Sandboxes are secure containers for executing untrusted user or agent code. Spawned at runtime with `Sandbox.create()`, they support arbitrary command execution, filesyste...

Modal Volumes API

Modal Volumes provide a high-performance distributed file system optimized for ML workflows. Volumes attach to Functions and Sandboxes via `Volume.from_name()`, support concurre...

Modal Images API

Modal Images are declarative, layered container image specifications built lazily on Modal's backend. Build from `debian_slim`, `micromamba`, `from_registry`, or `from_dockerfil...

Modal Secrets API

Modal Secrets are encrypted, named bundles of environment variables injected into Functions and Sandboxes at runtime. Manage via dashboard, the `modal secret` CLI, or programmat...

Modal Dicts and Queues API

Modal Dicts and Queues are distributed in-memory primitives. `modal.Dict` is a named key-value store; `modal.Queue` is a FIFO queue with optional partitioning and blocking gets....

Modal Schedules API

Modal Schedules attach periodic execution to a Function via `@app.function(schedule=modal.Cron(...))` or `modal.Period(...)`. Cron supports full cron syntax with timezone; Perio...

Modal Web Endpoints API

Modal Web Endpoints expose Functions over HTTP via `@modal.fastapi_endpoint`, `@modal.asgi_app` (FastAPI/Starlette/FastHTML), `@modal.wsgi_app` (Flask/Django), or `@modal.web_se...

Modal Tokens and Administration API

Administrative surface for Modal — token id/secret pair creation and revocation, environment management (e.g. `dev`/`staging`/`prod`), and workspace metadata. Tokens authenticat...

Collections

Modal Dicts and Queues API

OPEN

Modal Functions API

OPEN

Modal Images API

OPEN

Modal Sandboxes API

OPEN

Modal Schedules API

OPEN

Modal Secrets API

OPEN

Modal Tokens and Workspace API

OPEN

Modal Volumes API

OPEN

Modal Web Endpoints API

OPEN

Pricing Plans

Modal Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits

Modal Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps

Modal Finops

FINOPS

Features

Serverless Python functions with sub-second cold starts and autoscaling container pools

GPU compute across T4, L4, A10, L40S, A100 40/80GB, RTX PRO 6000, H100, H200, and B200

Modal Sandboxes for executing untrusted user/agent code with full container isolation

Declarative Image builder with layered caching (pip_install, apt_install, run_commands, from_registry, from_dockerfile)

Modal Volumes — distributed file system with commit/reload semantics; v2 supports many concurrent writers

Cloud bucket mounts for S3, GCS, R2, and Azure

Dicts and Queues for cross-container shared state and coordination

Modal Secrets for encrypted environment-variable injection

Modal Cron and Period schedules with timezone support

Web Endpoints via FastAPI, ASGI, WSGI, and custom web servers — streaming and WebSockets

Proxy-auth tokens, custom URL labels, and live development with `modal serve`

`modal run`, `modal deploy`, `modal serve`, `modal shell`, `modal container exec` CLI workflows

Python SDK (`modal`) plus JavaScript/TypeScript and Go SDKs via `libmodal`

Modal Notebooks for interactive development with GPU attachment

Multi-node distributed training with gang scheduling

Memory snapshots and warm pools for sub-second cold starts on large models

Per-second metered billing for CPU, memory, and GPU with tag-based chargeback

Plan-based concurrency quotas (containers, GPUs, cron jobs, web endpoints)

Token id/secret authentication scoped to workspace and environment

Static outbound IP via `modal.Proxy` for IP-allowlisted integrations

Tunnels and port forwarding for sandbox networking

SOC 2 Type II certified

Modal

Sources