# Modal vs Thunder Compute (slim)

> Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Thunder Compute's 56.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-thunder-compute.md (~2,400 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-thunder-compute.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-thunder-compute
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Thunder Compute's 56.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu.

- Modal: B 63.6, rank #346 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal.min.md
- Thunder Compute: C 56.1, rank #576 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/thunder-compute.min.md
- Modal, 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 65; Agent ergonomics, 57 against 48; Security & auth, 68 against 51; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Maintenance & community, 85 against 79. Also Free to start without a card.
- Thunder Compute, good for Agents in coding tools that rent a single persistent GPU machine for development, fine-tuning or a model server, at low hourly prices and over MCP. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | Modal | Thunder Compute |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 57 | 48 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 68 | 51 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 79 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 67 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Modal | Thunder Compute |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Modal | Thunder Compute |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.thundercompute.com:8443/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for compute gpu | not published | $0.219 per GB per month |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Thunder Compute's Terms and Conditions. The `tnr` CLI on GitHub is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.Thunder-Compute/thunder-compute` |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-01 | 2026-09-28 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2023-05-17 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk | 34 stars |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |