ix vs Modal

ix costs $0.0288 per vCPU-hour and Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. ix runs full VMs. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

ix

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Modal

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

What is different

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

ix
Modal
vCPU, per hour
ix: $0.0288
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
ix: $0.0108
Modal: $0.024012
Billing
ix: Active CPU time only
Modal: Per second
Isolation
ix: Full VM
Modal: gVisor
SDKs
ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations
ix: MCP
Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
ix: $0.0288
Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour
ix: $0.0108
Modal: $0.024012
Storage
ix: $0.101 per GiB-month stored
Modal: Not listed
Free tier
ix: Not listed
Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from
ix: Pay as you go
Modal: Pay as you go
Billing
ix: Active CPU time only
Modal: Per second

Limits

Max session
ix: Not listed
Modal: 24 hours
Idle stop
ix: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
Largest sandbox
ix: 100 vCPU · 256 GiB
Modal: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes
ix: Up to 100
Modal: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
ix: Full VM
Modal: gVisor
GPU
ix: Not listed
Modal:
Snapshots
ix:
Modal:
Pause and resume
ix: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Developer

SDKs
ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations
ix: MCP
Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Trust

License
ix: Not listed
Modal: Not listed
BYOC
ix: Not listed
Modal: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

ix
Modal
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
ix: $0.050
Modal: $0.119
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
ix: $0.101
Modal: $0.238
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
ix: $0.202
Modal: $0.476

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

ix fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use MCP.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.101 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 use the Claude Agent SDK or Claude Code.
  • 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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