# Cerebrium vs Modal

> Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal.md (~2,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu.

- Cerebrium: grade C, 55.3/100, rank #512 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cerebrium.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cerebrium.json
- Modal: grade B, 63.6/100, rank #302 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/modal.json

## Which one, for what

### Cerebrium (C)

Good for: Teams serving their own models as real-time endpoints (voice, LLM, image) who want per-second billing, multi-region placement and a scriptable management API.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: `disable_auth` defaults to true, so a deployed endpoint answers without a token unless the owner changes it

### Modal (B)

Good for: Python teams that want GPU functions, batch jobs and HTTP endpoints from one decorator with scale to zero.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 48
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 49
- Security & auth, 68 against 60
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No REST API or OpenAPI spec for deploying or invoking Functions


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cerebrium | Modal | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 70 | Modal +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 70 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 57 | Modal +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 68 | Modal +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 85 | Modal +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 67 | Modal +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.3 · C** | **63.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cerebrium | Modal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | Model platform |
| Vendor | Cerebrium Inc. | Modal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://rest.cerebrium.ai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cerebrium's terms of service. The CLI is MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2023-05-17 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 920 PyPI/wk | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Cerebrium.** Per-second GPU prices are public, a 94-operation OpenAPI spec covers the management API, and service account tokens expire and are limited to named projects. Deployed endpoints are callable without a token unless `disable_auth = false` is set, and no request rate limits, 429 handling or SLA were found in the reviewed documentation.

**Modal.** Scale to zero by default, per-second billing and about one-second container boots. No REST API or OpenAPI spec for deploying or invoking Functions.

## Before you call either

### Cerebrium

1. Set `disable_auth = false` in `cerebrium.toml` before deploying. The default leaves the endpoint callable by anyone with the URL
2. Authenticate headless with `CEREBRIUM_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN`. `cerebrium login` opens a browser
3. Raise `response_grace_period` for long work. It defaults to 15 minutes and async runs stop at 12 hours
4. Send `?async=true` to get a `run_id` with HTTP 202, and add `webhookEndpoint` because async calls return no result to the caller
5. Check the plan before choosing hardware. A100, H100, H200, B200 and RTX PRO 6000 need Standard, and `protected` compute bills at twice the listed rate

### Modal

1. Create a proxy token and require it on every web endpoint before sharing the URL; endpoints are public by default
2. Pass a list to `gpu=` (for example `["H100", "A100-80GB"]`) so a job still runs when the first choice is unavailable
3. Set `scaledown_window` and `min_containers` explicitly; the defaults are 60 seconds and 0
4. Use `.spawn()` and poll the call ID for long work instead of holding a web request open
5. Keep web endpoint traffic under 200 requests a second or ask Modal to raise the limit

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cerebrium or Modal?

Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Cerebrium's 55.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-modal.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cerebrium", "b": "modal"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cerebrium modal`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cerebrium.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/modal.json

## Other comparisons with Cerebrium or Modal

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- [Baseten vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-modal.md)
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- [Beam vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-modal.md)
- [Cerebrium vs CoreWeave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-coreweave.md)
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- [Cerebrium vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-northflank.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-runpod.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [CoreWeave vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-modal.md)
- [Koyeb vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-modal.md)
- [Lambda Cloud vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-modal.md)
- [Modal vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-northflank.md)
- [Modal vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Modal vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-runpod.md)
- [Modal vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.md)