# Modal vs Vast.ai (slim)

> Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Vast.ai's 62.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Vast.ai leads on schema & documentation. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.md (~2,050 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Modal scores 63.6 (B) on agent readiness against Vast.ai's 62.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Vast.ai leads on schema & documentation. Both do compute gpu.

- Modal: B 63.6, rank #302 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal.min.md
- Vast.ai: B 62.6, rank #331 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.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; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Transparency & trust, 67 against 62. Also Free to start without a card.
- Vast.ai, good for Cost-sensitive training, batch work and self-managed inference where the agent can search listings, set a price cap and tolerate host variance or interruption. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 78 against 70. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | Modal | Vast.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 78 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 57 | 57 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 68 | 72 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 81 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 67 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Modal | Vast.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Modal | Vast.ai Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://console.vast.ai/api/v0` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-01 | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2023-05-17 | 2025-06-18 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | 223 stars, 33k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |