Hyperbolic vs Modal

Hyperbolic

The API serves its own OpenAPI 3.1 document without a key, lists GPU prices on an open endpoint and dates the removal of legacy paths at 1 March 2027. API keys carry no scopes and can delete the account, rental creation has no idempotency key, and renting needs a browser signup and a $5 deposit.

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.

Hyperbolic

1. Read GET /v2/on-demand/rental-options first. It needs no key and lists what can be rented now, with costPerHourCents per GPU configuration.
2. Send rentalType and gpuCount to POST /v2/on-demand/rentals. Region defaults to us-central-1 and GPU type to h100, so set both from the options list.
3. List active rentals before retrying a failed create call. There is no idempotency key and every ready rental bills hourly.
4. Save an SSH public key with POST /v2/ssh-keys before renting. Without sshPublicKeyIds the newest saved key is attached.
5. Do not create reserved rentals unless asked. They are paid in full up front and cannot be terminated early.

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