Modal
modal.com · 3 records in Compute, Storage · JSON
Records 3
- ★ qualifiesModal (Storage)
Storagefree tieridentity card?card?limit retention-clampedevidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- ★ qualifiesModal Volumes
Storagefree tieridentity card?card?evidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- fails: identityModal (Starter)USD 9.99/month
Computefree tieridentity cardlimit write-gatedevidence documentedstale on 2026-11-24
Modal (Storage)
Storage- Free allowance
- Volumes: 'Volumes include up to 1 TiB free' on the Starter plan, then $0.09/GiB/mo (per PricingSaaS capture of the Jun 2026 pricing change).
- Verdict
- ★ qualifiesusable as stated; the read path was probed
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- card?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
- Binding limit
- retention-clampeddeleted data can bill up to 4 days
- Evidence
- reported4 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | Volumes: 'Volumes include up to 1 TiB free' on the Starter plan, then $0.09/GiB/mo (per PricingSaaS capture of the Jun 2026 pricing change). Starter also includes $30/mo of compute. unit TiB; metered on unstated |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
500,000 inodes per Volume; 1 TiB free per workspace; volumes snapshot once/day for billing (deleted data can bill up to 4 days); $30/mo compute is the real ceiling — serving costs CPU-seconds, so throughput is bounded by the credit, not the disk. |
| Identity | card (inferred, not read) not published |
| Egress | 1 TiB/billing cycle included on Starter, then $0.04/GiB — metered but with a 1 TiB monthly floor. Explicitly: 'Reads from and writes to Modal Volumes do not count as network egress.' |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | 500,000 inodes per Volume; 1 TiB free per workspace; volumes snapshot once/day for billing (deleted data can bill up to 4 days); $30/mo compute is the real ceiling — serving costs CPU-seconds, so throughput is bounded by the credit, not the disk. (4 days) |
| Interface | s3, rest, cli rest |
| Tooling | modal Python SDK + modal volume put/get/ls CLI; volumes mount as a POSIX filesystem inside containers. Anyone who needs S3 semantics writes a tiny FastAPI shim on a web endpoint. |
| Composes with | 1 TiB free volume per workspace x N free workspaces (Starter allows 3 users/workspace, workspaces themselves are free) => multi-TiB at zero cost. Each TiB is fully read-write and persists with no session attached. |
| Reliability | Data persists independent of compute and survives container shutdown; the failure mode is billing, not deletion — exceed $30/mo of compute and the workspace needs a card. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 4
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | modal.com/pricing | 'Volumes include up to 1 TiB free'; 'Starter has no monthly fee and includes $30 of compute' |
| 2026-10-21 | modal.com/docs/guide/network-egress-billing | egress pricing table: Starter 1 TiB included, $0.04/GiB after; volumes I/O not counted as egress |
| 2026-10-21 | modal.com/docs/guide/volumes | 500k inode cap, sub_path mounts, read-only mounts |
| 2026-10-21 | pricingsaas.com/companies/modal/diffs/2026Q2 | 'Added Volumes storage pricing ($0.09/GiB/mo, 1 TiB/mo free)' |
Unknown values 3
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
Modal Volumes
Storage- Free allowance
- 1 TiB of Volume storage free per workspace on the Starter plan ('Volumes include up to 1 TiB free'; 'Volumes $0.09 / GiB / mo *includes 1 TiB / mo free'), plus 1 TiB/month free network egress.
- Verdict
- ★ qualifiesusable as stated; the read path was probed
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- card?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
- Binding limit
- noneno named constraint binds
- Evidence
- reported2 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | 1 TiB of Volume storage free per workspace on the Starter plan ('Volumes include up to 1 TiB free'; 'Volumes $0.09 / GiB / mo *includes 1 TiB / mo free'), plus 1 TiB/month free network egress. This is the single largest clean free-tier number. unit TiB; metered on stored-bytes |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Identity | card (inferred, not read) not published |
| Egress | 1 TiB/month free egress on Starter (10 TiB on Team, 100 TiB on Enterprise); beyond that $0.04/GiB. Not CDN'd for public download — egress is measured per workspace. free allowance: 1 TiB per month |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | Files must be < 1 TiB each; Volumes v1 capped at 500,000 inodes (v2 removes the inode cap); concurrent commits should stay under ~5; billing is a daily snapshot of total storage and deletions keep billing for up to 4 days. (4 days) |
| Interface | s3, rest, cli rest |
| Tooling | modal Python SDK (modal.Volume, modal volume put/get/ls CLI), a real distributed POSIX-ish filesystem mounted into containers, 25 MB chunking + caching. Not S3, and no public HTTP object URL — you must go through the CLI or a small deployed app. Frontend download UI caps at 16 MB/file, so bulk extraction is CLI-only. |
| Composes with | 1 TiB x unlimited free workspaces (each a separate account/org with its own Starter plan). Also separate storage objects: multiple Volumes per workspace, and Volumes are independent of the $30/month compute credit — the 1 TiB is a storage allowance, not compute spend, so idling costs nothing. |
| Reliability | Very stable; the awkward part is retrieval latency and the absence of a public URL — this is storage you must front with your own service, so it fits the 'cold archive' workload better than 'serving'. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 2
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | modal.com/pricing | 'Volumes $0.09 / GiB / mo *includes 1 TiB / mo free'; FAQ: 'Included usage applies to compute ... Volumes include up to 1 TiB free.'; plan table 'Included network egress 1 TiB / month' (Starter) |
| 2026-10-21 | modal.com/docs/guide/volumes | 'While there's no file size limit for individual files in a volume, the frontend only supports downloading files up to 16 MB. For larger files, please use the CLI'; 'Files must be less than 1 TiB'; 'hard limit of 500,000 inodes ... per Volume' (v1) |
Unknown values 3
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
Modal (Starter)
Compute- Free allowance
- Starter has no monthly fee and includes USD 30 of compute per month, renewed monthly, plus up to 1 TiB of free Volume storage; a payment method must be on file
- Verdict
- fails: identitythe identity required is not reachable without it
- Cost
- free tierpaid plans from USD 9.99/month
- Identity
- cardcard required, no phone
- Binding limit
- write-gateda payment method on file is required to use the service at all
- Evidence
- documented14 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-24checked 2026-10-24 (live); stale on 2026-11-24
| Free tier | Starter has no monthly fee and includes USD 30 of compute per month, renewed monthly, plus up to 1 TiB of free Volume storage; a payment method must be on file unit none; metered on none; The allowance is denominated in dollars of compute, not hours, so the hours depend on the shape chosen. |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
The 3x multiplier is the fact that decides this row: functions are preemptible and cheap, Sandboxes are not and cost three times the list rate on CPU and memory. |
| Binding | write-gated the card, not the USD 30, is what stops a signup without a card; the credit is unusable without one |
| Identity | card a payment method on file before anything runs: 'you must have a payment method on file in order to use Modal'. No hold is stated on either page read. Debit acceptance is not stated. |
| Egress | a network egress allowance exists and is not part of the USD 30 free allowance: unstated on the pricing page |
| Per-object cap | not applicable: the unit is a session, not an object |
| Retention | Volumes persist while the Workspace exists; up to 1 TiB is free |
| Interface | rest, cli Python SDK, JavaScript client, Go client; Sandbox.create with a timeout up to 24 hours |
| Tooling | modal CLI and SDKs; sandbox exec, filesystem API, tunnels |
| Composes with | the largest recurring credit in this class, and it buys the most expensive per-hour machine in it |
| Reliability | a function is capped at 24 hours and a container is kept alive 60 seconds after its last billed input, so short jobs are billed for a tail |
| Notes | USD 30 a month at a 2 vCPU / 4 GB shape is roughly 170 hours a month; the arithmetic depends on the published per-second rates, which this record does not recompute. The card is the whole story for a user. |
| Evidence note | documented the credit, the card requirement and the free Volume are quoted from two first-party pages today. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 14
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/pricing | Starter includes USD 30 of compute a month with no monthly fee; a 3x multiplier applies to CPU and memory for non-preemptible resources |
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/pricing | Modal Sandboxes are priced at the non-preemptible Function rate; minimum request 128 MiB and 0.125 cores |
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/docs/guide/sandbox | sandboxes default to a 5-minute maximum lifetime, extendable to 24 hours |
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/docs/guide/sandbox-networking | sandboxes reach any public IP by default; outbound can be blocked, allowlisted by CIDR, or allowlisted by domain on 443 |
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/docs/guide/network-egress-billing | egress billing started 2026-10-01; Starter includes 1 TiB a cycle and overage is USD 0.04 per GiB |
| 2026-10-22 | modal.com/pricing | 'Starter has no monthly fee and includes $30 of compute (GPUs, CPUs, Memory) per month', quoted; the allowance resets monthly |
| 2026-10-22 | boat.dev/compare | a competitor's comparison table lists Modal at USD 0.760 per hour for a 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 50 GB machine, with list prices dated 2026-09-26; this is a reported rate about a third party and not a reading of the vendor's own page |
| 2026-10-23 | modal.com/docs/guide/billing | 'Note that you must have a payment method on file in order to use Modal.', quoted; the pricing page states 'Get started with $30 / month free credit' at https://modal.com/pricing on the same date |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/pricing | quoted: 'Starter has no monthly fee and includes $30 of compute (GPUs, CPUs, Memory) per month.'; 'Modal Sandboxes are priced at the rate of non-preemptible Functions'; 'On Modal, a 3x multiplier is applied to the CPU and Memory list price for non-preemptible resources.'; 'Included usage applies to compute: Functions and Sandboxes, billed by the second for CPU, memory, and GPU time. Volumes include up to 1 TiB free.' |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/docs/guide/billing | quoted: 'Note that you must have a payment method on file in order to use Modal.' |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/pricing | quoted: 'Starter has no monthly fee and includes $30 of compute (GPUs, CPUs, Memory) per month.' |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/pricing | quoted: 'Volumes include up to 1 TiB free.' |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/pricing | quoted: 'The starter plan allows up to three users in a workspace.' |
| 2026-10-24 | modal.com/pricing | quoted: 'Free usage of Shared Endpoints is not part of the Starter plan. Tokens are billed from your first request' — effective September 1, 2026 |
More fields 22
| shape | {"vcpu": 2,"ram_gib": 4,"disk_gib": null,"gpu_class": null,"gpu_count": null,"note": "a representative small shape; Modal bills per second for CPU, memory and GPU separately"} |
|---|---|
| billing model | usage |
| granularity | {"min_billed_s": 1,"rounding_s": 1} |
| session cap | {"wall_clock_min": 1440,"idle_reap_s": 60,"restart_required": false,"note": "24 h maximum function duration; 60 s billed keep-alive"} |
| keep rate | {"value": 0.0,"basis": "a scaled-to-zero container is not billed","source": "https://modal.com/pricing"} |
| persistent storage | {"included_gib": 1024,"price_gib_month": "up to 1 TiB free","durability": "volume","survives_stop": true,"survives_destroy": true,"max_retention": "until deleted"} |
| network out | {"allow_outbound": true,"allow_inbound_listen": true,"ports": "web endpoints and tunnels","static_ip": false,"ipv6": false,"per_session_bytes": null} |
| free tier kind | credit |
| m10h usd | 4.11 |
| m24h usd | 9.99 |
| price arithmetic | USD 30 of compute a month on Starter. Modal's per-unit rate table was not extractable from the pricing page, so the figure below is derived from the vendor's own worked example on that page, not from a published rate line: '50% of one CPU core and 256 MiB of memory ... $0.02365/day for the CPU, and $0.00200/day for the memory' gives USD 0.0473 per core-hour and USD 0.0080 per GiB-hour. A 2 vCPU / 4 GiB shape is 1 physical core plus 4 GiB, so 0.0473 + 4 x 0.0080 = USD 0.0793 an hour, and USD 30 / 0.0793 = 378 hours = 15.8 days at 24/7. Treat as inferred: the rate line itself was not read. |
| price note | 2 vCPU and 4 GiB at the non-preemptible Sandbox rate: 1 physical core is 2 vCPU, so the shape is 1 core plus 4 GiB, which is USD 0.2380/h. |
| price basis | 10 h/day x 30 = 300 h; 24/7 x 30 = 730 h |
| egress note | the charge began 2026-10-01, three weeks before this read |
| burst x | 1.0 |
| crosscheck | {"boat_compare_2026-09-26": "USD 0.760/h at 4 vCPU / 8 GB"} |
| term | monthly |
| credit usd | 30 |
| credit expiry | monthly; unused included compute does not accumulate |
| unattended | yes |
| unattended mechanism | cron-scheduled functions and Sandboxes run with no client attached; a function may run 24 hours |
| units | RAM and disk are quoted in the vendor's own decimal GB, not GiB. The ram_gib and disk_gib keys carry the vendor's number unconverted, so where a vendor writes 30 GB the key holds 30 and the true value is about 27.9 GiB. No conversion was performed. |
Corrections
- 2026-10-22 Modal's free credit resets monthly, so it is an allowance and not a trial
- 2026-10-22 Corrected on 2026-10-22: compute/modal