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Head to head · 2026

Modal vs Replicate

Pricing, free plans, ratings, features, pros and cons, side by side. Where one comes out ahead, we mark it.

Modal

Serverless cloud platform for running AI workloads, with GPU inference, fine-tuning and training, sandboxes for agents,…

4.5Free

Visit Modal (opens Modal in a new tab)

Replicate

Run, fine-tune and deploy open-source machine learning models through a single cloud API

4.5Not listed

Visit Replicate (opens Replicate in a new tab)

Who comes out ahead

Based only on the facts in our directory. The right pick still depends on the job you need done.

  • Lower starting price

    Not comparable

    Not comparable: Modal does not list a price

  • Free plan

    Modal

    Only Modal has one

  • Higher rating

    Tie

    4.5 against 4.5

  • Same job?

    Yes

    Both are AI Infrastructure & Agent Tooling tools

Side by side

Compared onModalReplicate
Our rating4.54.5
Starts atFreeNot listed
Free planYesBetterNo
CategoryAI Infrastructure & Agent ToolingAI Infrastructure & Agent Tooling
PlansFree
  • Pay as you goUsage-based
  • EnterpriseCustom
Key features
  • Serverless GPU inference with OpenAI-compatible endpoints
  • Fine-tuning, LoRA and reinforcement learning on GPUs with fast start times
  • Sandboxes for coding agents and untrusted code
  • Multi-node GPU clusters with RDMA
  • Batch jobs and HTTPS gateways that scale to zero
  • Single API to run thousands of community-contributed open-source models
  • Fine-tune models on your own data without managing training infrastructure
  • Deploy custom models via Cog, Replicate's open-source packaging tool
  • Per-second compute billing with no idle GPU cost
  • Client libraries for common languages plus straightforward HTTP access
Pros
  • $30 of free compute each month on the Starter plan
  • No charge for idle machines
  • Startup and academic credit programs
  • Removes essentially all GPU provisioning work for open-source models
  • Pay-per-use pricing suits experimental and bursty workloads
  • Cog keeps models portable rather than locking them to the platform
Cons
  • Per-second pricing needs estimating for real workloads
  • Shared Endpoint tokens are billed from the first request
  • Scale figures are the company's own
  • Cold starts add latency on infrequently used models
  • Sustained high-volume inference eventually costs more than dedicated hardware
CompanyModal LabsReplicate, LLC, founded 2019

Prices come from each vendor's pricing page, last checked 20261012. Check the vendor before you buy.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Is Modal better than Replicate?

In our reviews Modal scores 4.5 and Replicate scores 4.5. The better pick depends on the job. Modal: Serverless cloud platform for running AI workloads, with GPU inference, fine-tuning and training, sandboxes for agents, batch jobs and multi-node clusters, billed per second with $30 of free compute a month. Replicate: Run, fine-tune and deploy open-source machine learning models through a single cloud API.

Which is cheaper, Modal or Replicate?

Modal: free. Replicate: see pricing.

Do Modal and Replicate have free plans?

Only Modal has a free plan.

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