Modal vs SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes bills memory only, at $0.04572 per GiB-hour. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours. SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes runs microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Modal

Serverless compute with sandboxes and GPUs.

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

Visit site Modal profile

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

Isolated microVMs for AI agents that fork from a saved snapshot, part of SF Compute Autoresearch.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: None
Max session: Not listed

Visit site SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

Modal

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

vCPU, per hour: Modal: $0.070956; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: Modal: $0.024012; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Free tier: Modal: $30 credit every month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Billing: Modal: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only
Isolation: Modal: gVisor; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
Integrations: Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, LangChain; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Modalmodal.com/pricing

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxesautoresearch.sfcompute.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Modal: $0.070956; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Included
RAM, per GiB-hour: Modal: $0.024012; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.04572
Storage: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Sandbox snapshots $0.10 per GiB-month of deduplicated bytes, $0.05 per GiB-month in cold storage
Free tier: Modal: $30 credit every month; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: None
Paid plan from: Modal: Pay as you go; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: Modal: Per second; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Memory only

Limits

Max session: Modal: 24 hours; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Idle stop: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Up to 4,096

Platform

Isolation: Modal: gVisor; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MicroVM
GPU: Modal:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Snapshots: Modal:; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:
Pause and resume: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes:

Developer

SDKs: Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
Integrations: Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, LangChain; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

License: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC: Modal: Not listed; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Modal

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Modal: $0.119; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.091
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Modal: $0.238; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.183
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Modal: $0.476; SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes: $0.366

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Modal fits when

You need GPUs.
You use the Claude Agent SDK or LangChain.
You want to start without paying.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use MCP.
You want the lower list price: $0.183 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need pause and resume.

More comparisons

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Modal

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Modal fits when

SF Compute Autoresearch Sandboxes fits when

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