Modal: The Layer Your Inference Engine Runs On — and When the Premium Isn't Worth It
Modal is a per-second-billed serverless GPU platform that also treats agent sandboxes as a first-class primitive (company-reported: over 1 billion sandboxes launched, more than a third of revenue). The selection question isn't how convenient it is — it's your GPU utilization. Verified 2026-08-21: Modal's A100 80GB works out to $2.50/hr against RunPod's $1.59/hr for the same card, so above 64% utilization renting your own is cheaper. But on the same day, H100 SXM is $3.95/hr on Modal against $3.99 on Lambda — on that card the premium is gone.