Cloudflare Sandbox vs Modal

Cloudflare Sandbox costs $0.072 per vCPU-hour and Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. Cloudflare Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Cloudflare Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
None
Max session
Not listed

Modal

Isolation
gVisor
Free tier
$30 credit every month
Max session
24 hours

What is different

7 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

Cloudflare Sandbox
Modal
vCPU, per hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.072
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.009
Modal: $0.024012
Free tier
Cloudflare Sandbox: None
Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from
Cloudflare Sandbox: $5 / month
Modal: Pay as you go
Billing
Cloudflare Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Modal: Per second
Isolation
Cloudflare Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
Modal: gVisor
SDKs
Cloudflare Sandbox: TypeScript
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.072
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.009
Modal: $0.024012
Storage
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.000252 per GiB-hour
Modal: Not listed
Free tier
Cloudflare Sandbox: None
Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from
Cloudflare Sandbox: $5 / month
Modal: Pay as you go
Billing
Cloudflare Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Modal: Per second

Limits

Max session
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: 24 hours
Idle stop
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Cloudflare Sandbox: 4 vCPU · 12 GiB
Modal: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Cloudflare Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
Modal: gVisor
GPU
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal:
Snapshots
Cloudflare Sandbox:
Modal:
Pause and resume
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Developer

SDKs
Cloudflare Sandbox: TypeScript
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Claude Agent SDK

Trust

License
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
BYOC
Cloudflare Sandbox: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Cloudflare Sandbox
Modal
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.090
Modal: $0.119
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.180
Modal: $0.238
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Cloudflare Sandbox: $0.360
Modal: $0.476

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Cloudflare Sandbox fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.180 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

Modal fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You use the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You want to start without paying.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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