Modal vs Vercel Sandbox

Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Modal

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

Vercel Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
5 CPU-hours every month
Max session
24 hours

What is different

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

Modal
Vercel Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Modal: $0.070956
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Modal: $0.024012
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Free tier
Modal: $30 credit every month
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Modal: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Modal: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Isolation
Modal: gVisor
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
SDKs
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Modal: Claude Agent SDK
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Modal: $0.070956
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
Modal: $0.024012
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
Free tier
Modal: $30 credit every month
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
Modal: Pay as you go
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
Modal: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Modal: 24 hours
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Modal: Claude Agent SDK
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK

Trust

License
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Modal: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Modal
Vercel Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Modal: $0.119
Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Modal: $0.238
Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Modal: $0.476
Vercel Sandbox: $0.682

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Modal fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.238 against $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

Vercel Sandbox fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You use LangChain, the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Vercel AI SDK.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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