# Modal vs Freestyle: pricing, isolation and long-running VMs

Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) costs 72% less than either. Modal sandboxes last up to a day. Freestyle VMs last for weeks.

## Which is better, Modal or Freestyle?

It depends on whether you need GPUs or very large VMs. For an agent that spends most of a run waiting on a model, Runtime costs the least: $0.64 for 1,000 one-minute runs, against $2.25 on Freestyle and $3.97 on Modal. Every sandbox has a hypervisor boundary, and there is no time limit. Pick Modal for sandboxes beside GPU training and inference code. Pick Freestyle for one VM of up to 32 vCPUs, or for forks taken without a pause.

## At a glance

|           | Modal Sandboxes                                                                                             | Freestyle                                                                | Runtime                                                              |
| --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Isolation | gVisor, a user-space kernel                                                                                 | Full Linux virtual machines                                              | Firecracker microVM, own kernel                                      |
| CPU       | $0.1419 per physical core-hour (2 vCPUs), request or use                                 | $0.04032 per allocated vCPU-hour                           | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor       |
| Memory    | $0.0240 per GiB-hour, request or use                                                      | $0.0129 per GiB-hour                                   | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour                                |
| Lifetime  | Up to 24 hours per sandbox                                                                                  | Runs until stopped; hibernates with memory                               | No time limit: runs while it works; pause kept while you have credit |
| Plan      | Starter $0 with $30 a month; Team $250 a month | Free, Hobby $50, Pro $500 a month | None; prepaid credit from $10                              |
| Largest   | Set per sandbox                                                                                             | 32 vCPUs and 64 GiB on Pro                                               | 16 vCPUs and 64 GiB, paid                          |

## Short jobs or long machines

Modal sandboxes are for work measured in minutes or hours, capped at 24 hours,
next to Modal's functions and GPUs. Freestyle sells the opposite: VMs that run
for weeks, hibernate with their memory and fork live. Runtime covers both
ends. It has no time limit, `persistent: true` keeps a machine from idling out, and a pause
keeps memory while you have credit.

## Cost for the same job

2 vCPU, 4 GiB, 60 seconds and 20 CPU-seconds, 1,000 times. Freestyle uses its
default 32 GiB disk:

```
Modal     CPU    1,000 × 60 s × 1 core × $0.00003942           = $2.37
          Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.00000667                = $1.60
          Total                                                  $3.97

Freestyle CPU    1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.04032           = $1.34
          Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0129            = $0.86
          Disk   1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 32 × $0.000086         = $0.05
          Total                                                  $2.25

Runtime   CPU    1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025                = $0.14
          Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075           = $0.50
          Total                                                  $0.64
```

Per month at 100,000 runs: $396.60 on Modal, $224.99 on Freestyle, and $63.89 on
Runtime. With the CPUs busy for the whole minute: $3.97 on Modal, $2.25 on Freestyle, and $1.33 on Runtime.

## Which one to pick

- **Modal** for sandboxes beside GPU training and inference code.
- **Freestyle** for one VM of up to 32 vCPUs, or for forks taken with no pause.
- **Runtime** for the lowest bill and a hypervisor boundary on every sandbox,
  with no plan fee. It runs 100 sandboxes at the same time on a paid account.

Also: [Runtime vs Modal](/docs/modal-sandbox-alternative),
[Runtime vs Freestyle](/docs/freestyle-alternative).

## Runtime Cloud

Runtime is 84% cheaper than Modal and 72% cheaper than Freestyle on that
benchmark: 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox, using 20
CPU-seconds each. The costs are $3.97 on Modal, $2.25 on Freestyle, and $0.64 on Runtime. Runtime charges for the CPU seconds the
code consumed, not the cores it reserved.

A paused sandbox keeps its memory, and there is no plan fee. Sign in with `npx withruntime login` to start free. The [migration guide](/docs/migrate) moves existing code.

## Sources

Modal rates were checked 25 October 2026. Freestyle rates were checked 25 October 2026.

- [Modal pricing](https://modal.com/pricing), [Modal resources and billing](https://modal.com/docs/guide/resources)
- [Freestyle pricing](https://www.freestyle.sh/pricing), [Freestyle VM pricing and limits](https://www.freestyle.sh/docs/vms/pricing-and-limits)
- Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing)

Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.