Serverless Functions
Hand-reviewed 2026-07-18 · review after 2026-10-18
Setup: low
- Deployment
- Applications, functions, images, secrets and GPU requirements are defined in Python and run with the Modal SDK or deployed with the Modal CLI.
- function platform · synchronous http · asynchronous job · scheduled job
- Scale to zero
- Function container pools scale to zero by default. A scaledown window can retain idle containers, while minimum containers deliberately prevents scale-to-zero.
- supported · default
- Billing behavior
- GPU, CPU and memory are additive usage components. Retaining an idle container through a scaledown window can continue consuming billable resources; exact current meters and increments are shown with each pricing variant.
- Startup behavior
- Modal documents container boot around one second, but complete cold starts range from seconds to minutes when application imports, model downloads or initialization are included. Images, volumes and memory snapshots can reduce application warm-up time.
- Setup
- The common path needs a Modal account, Python package and CLI authentication; infrastructure configuration and image construction remain in Python and a separate container registry is not required.
- Requires: Modal account · Python SDK and Modal CLI · Application code expressed as a Modal App
- Important constraints
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- Selecting or constraining a compute region can apply a regional price multiplier.
- Total cost depends on requested CPU and memory as well as the GPU rate.