RunPod vs Modal
GPU Cloud Compute pricing comparison · 2026
RunPod pricing ranges from $0.34–$3.49/GPU/hour, while Modal ranges from $0–$250/GPU/hour. RunPod is typically 99% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
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RunPod and Modal are both gpu cloud compute competitors. This page compares their list pricing tier by tier so you can see which is cheaper for your workload shape.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | RunPod | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| Community Cloud (Spot) | Custom | Free /month |
| Secure Cloud (On-Demand) | Custom | $250 /month |
| Serverless | Custom | Custom |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
RunPod
8 scenarios$30
Whisper Transcription - 400 Hours of Audio
$40 total
$262/month
Daily AI Inference Workload
$96
Video Generation with Hunyuan
$108 for 6 H100-hours
Modal
2 scenarios$0/month
Solo Developer on Starter Plan
platform fee + ~$2/hr per GPU compute
$250/month
Small Team Running Large Model Inference
platform fee + ~$72/hr GPU costs for large model serving
Contract Terms
| Term | RunPod | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-renewal | No | — |
| Cancellation | No contract — stop or delete pods at any time, no notice required | — |
| Minimum commitment | None for on-demand pods; 3-month commitment available for discounted H100 pricing | — |
| Price escalation | No published uplift schedule; market pricing has generally trended downward with increased competition | $2-$72/hr per GPU |
| Can downgrade | Yes | — |