Hugging Face Sandboxes vs Modal

Hugging Face Sandboxes costs $0.005 per vCPU-hour and Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. Hugging Face Sandboxes runs full VMs, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Hugging Face Sandboxes

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
24 hours

Modal

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

What is different

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

Hugging Face Sandboxes
Modal
vCPU, per hour
Hugging Face Sandboxes: $0.005
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Included
Modal: $0.024012
Billing
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Bundled machine time
Modal: Per second
Isolation
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Full VM
Modal: gVisor
SDKs
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Python
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Hugging Face Sandboxes: $0.005
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Included
Modal: $0.024012
Storage
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
Free tier
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Pay as you go
Billing
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Bundled machine time
Modal: Per second

Limits

Max session
Hugging Face Sandboxes: 24 hours
Modal: 24 hours
Idle stop
Hugging Face Sandboxes: After 10 minutes
Modal: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Full VM
Modal: gVisor
GPU
Hugging Face Sandboxes:
Modal:
Snapshots
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal:
Pause and resume
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Developer

SDKs
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Python
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Claude Agent SDK

Trust

License
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
BYOC
Hugging Face Sandboxes: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Hugging Face Sandboxes
Modal
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Hugging Face Sandboxes: $0.005
Modal: $0.119
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Hugging Face Sandboxes: $0.010
Modal: $0.238
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Hugging Face Sandboxes: $0.020
Modal: $0.476

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Hugging Face Sandboxes fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.010 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Modal fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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