CreateOS Sandbox vs Modal
CreateOS Sandbox is an isolated, benchmarked runtime billed per second. Modal: A serverless compute platform with a sandbox SKU and a strong GPU catalog.
Pricing at a Glance
Compute and memory rates, verified June 2026. On total cost, CreateOS Sandbox adds no egress fees and pause that stops vCPU billing with your state kept.
CreateOS Sandbox
Best total cost- Compute
- $0.0362 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0116 /GiB-hr
Modal
- Compute
- $0.0710 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0242 /GiB-hr
Why Teams Choose CreateOS Sandbox
What CreateOS Sandbox does that Modal does not, with an honest note on where Modal still has the edge.
Lower rate: $0.03616363 vs $0.071 per vCPU-hour.
No Sandbox surcharge; Modal's Sandbox SKU prices CPU about 3x its standard Functions.
Published cost and margin, and no egress fees.
Where Modal is strong
A deep GPU catalog and a polished Python-native developer experience.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Every dimension side by side. Rates verified June 2026; isolation, egress defaults, concurrency, session length, timeout behaviour, SDKs and preinstalled packages verified 7 September 2026 against each vendor's own docs and pricing pages.
| Dimension | CreateOS Sandbox | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| vCPU rate | $0.03616363/vCPU-hr | $0.071/vCPU-hr (Sandbox SKU) |
| RAM rate | $0.01159025/GiB-hr | $0.0242/GiB-hr |
| Egress | No egress fees | Not charged |
| Pause | Memory and storage only, state preserved | Scale-to-zero |
| Pricing transparency | Cost and margin published | Price only |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM, own guest kernel | gVisor container runtime (shared host kernel, syscall interception) |
| Egress default | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once an allowlist is set, enforced in-kernel outside the VM | Outbound to any public IP by default; block_network, CIDR allowlist (any protocol), domain allowlist (TLS 443 only, beta) |
| Concurrent sandboxes | 1 on Free, 5 Beginner, 20 Pro, 30 Enterprise (GET /v1/whoami shows your running count) | 100 containers on Starter, 5,000 on Team, per modal.com/pricing |
| Max session length | None; runs until destroyed, paused or auto-paused | 5 minutes by default, configurable up to 24 hours |
| On timeout | No timer; optional idle auto-pause snapshots state, explicit destroy cleans up | Terminated at the timeout |
| SDKs | TypeScript SDK, CLI, MCP, REST from any language; no Python SDK yet | Python SDK (modal.Sandbox) |
| Preinstalled Python packages | devbox:1 ships pandas, numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pyarrow, scikit-learn; templates for pinned sets | Defined per sandbox in a modal.Image |
| Free tier | Free: 500 credits, 1 concurrent sandbox, 10 per day; paid plans from Beginner | Starter: $0 plus $30 monthly credit |
Common Questions
Is CreateOS Sandbox cheaper than Modal?
Yes on compute: $0.03616363 vs $0.071 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 vs $0.0242 per GiB-hour, verified June 2026. Modal's Sandbox SKU also prices CPU roughly 3x its standard Functions; CreateOS has no such surcharge.
What is Modal better at?
Modal has a deeper GPU catalog and a polished Python-native developer experience. CreateOS Sandbox competes on price, transparency, no egress fees, and being part of one governed execution layer.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.