# Modal Sandboxes vs Together Code Sandbox

> Modal Sandboxes scores 75.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Together Code Sandbox leads on schema & documentation. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-together-code-sandbox.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: 2026-10-09

Modal Sandboxes scores 75.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Together Code Sandbox leads on schema & documentation. Both do sandbox code.

- Modal Sandboxes: grade BB, 75.5/100, rank #45 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal-sandboxes.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/modal-sandboxes.json
- Together Code Sandbox: grade D, 53.6/100, rank #628 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/together-code-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/together-code-sandbox.json

## Which one, for what

### Modal Sandboxes (BB)

Good for: GPU work inside a sandbox, or agents already running on Modal.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 95 against 25
- Security & auth, 76 against 47
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 83
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 60

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta

### Together Code Sandbox (D)

Good for: Teams already buying from Together, and former CodeSandbox SDK users, who want Docker-defined sandboxes with disk and memory snapshots from Python or TypeScript.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 79

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

Watch for: The SDK and CLI work only for organisations Together has enabled, and the docs say to contact Together for access


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Modal Sandboxes | Together Code Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 25 | Modal Sandboxes +70 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 86 | Together Code Sandbox +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 70 | Together Code Sandbox +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 76 | 47 | Modal Sandboxes +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Modal Sandboxes +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 83 | Modal Sandboxes +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 60 | Modal Sandboxes +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75.5 · BB** | **53.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Modal Sandboxes | Together Code Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Modal | Together AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.bartender.codesandbox.io` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Together's terms of service. The SDKs, CLI and OpenAPI documents on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-01 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2023-05-17 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk | 3 stars, 1.3k npm/wk, 3.4k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**Modal Sandboxes.** GPU sandboxes at the same per-second rates as the rest of Modal. No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta.

**Together Code Sandbox.** Two public OpenAPI documents, MIT clients for Python and TypeScript, cursor pagination and built-in retries make the surface easy for an agent to drive. Access is the limit. Together enables the SDK per organisation on request, publishes no rate limits or SLA, and neither status page names the sandbox service.

## Before you call either

### Modal Sandboxes

1. Pass `timeout=` when you create a sandbox. The default lifetime is 5 minutes
2. Set `block_network=True` or a `cidr_allowlist` for untrusted code
3. Give a sandbox a `name` so a retried create raises `AlreadyExistsError` instead of starting a second one
4. Snapshot the filesystem before the 24-hour limit and start a fresh sandbox from it
5. Catch `ResourceExhaustedError` from `Sandbox.create()` on SDK 1.6.0 and later

### Together Code Sandbox

1. Confirm the organisation is on Together's allowlist before installing. A valid `TOGETHER_API_KEY` alone is not enough
2. Build a snapshot first with `snapshots.create`. No default image exists, and every sandbox needs `snapshot_id` or `snapshot_alias`
3. Set `ttl` at creation or call `terminate()`. Nothing stops a sandbox otherwise, and closing the Python client leaves it running
4. Store the snapshot alias, not the sandbox ID. A terminated sandbox can't restart, and its state lives at `sandbox:<id>`
5. Exclude `snapshots.create` from retries with `should_retry`, and set `experimental.network_policy` before serving anything private on a port

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Modal Sandboxes or Together Code Sandbox?

Modal Sandboxes scores 75.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Together Code Sandbox's 53.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Together Code Sandbox leads on schema & documentation.

### Can an agent call Modal Sandboxes and Together Code Sandbox without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Modal Sandboxes. Together Code Sandbox has a hosted endpoint at https://api.bartender.codesandbox.io.


## For agents

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

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