Modal vs Baseten
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Modal and Baseten built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Modal if…
Bursty, self-deployed inference where the bill should follow the work. Compute meters per second and per CPU core — a physical core is $0.0000131 per core-second with a 0.125-core minimum — and the H100 hour is $3.95, the cheapest of the four here that publishes one.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Baseten if…
Teams that want per-token APIs and dedicated GPUs from one vendor with no plan fee — minute-granularity billing means a model that runs for ten minutes costs ten minutes.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Modal: You want a large GPU named with its memory before committing, or support without an Enterprise contract. The page lists B200 and B300 but states VRAM only for the A100 rows, so the ceiling is unpublished; SOC 2, HIPAA, RBAC and SSO are all Enterprise.
- Baseten: Its dedicated H100 works out at $6.50 an hour, roughly three times DeepInfra's, so steady GPU workloads pay a premium for the platform around them.
7 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Modal 0
Baseten 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Modal | Baseten |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | No — New workspaces get starting credits for testing; usage beyond them is billed per minute. |
| Kind of free offer | Free credit — $30 of compute a month on Starter, recurring rather than one-off | Free credit |
| Entry paid plan | $0 a month on Starter — the plan carries no fee at all, and $30 of monthly compute is included before anything is billed. The first plan with a monthly fee is Team at $250. | $0 per month on the Basic plan — pay as you go, with dedicated deployments, model APIs and training included rather than gated behind a fee. |
| Pricing model | A platform fee plus metered compute, and the fee buys a compute allowance rather than access. Starter is $0 a month and includes $30 of compute; Team is $250 a month and includes $100. Compute is billed per second on top of both. | No platform fee: per-token Model APIs for open models, and dedicated deployments billed per minute of compute with volume discounts. The Pro tier buys priority access to high-demand GPUs rather than a lower rate. |
| GPU | ||
| H100 SXM, per GPU-hour | $3.95 per hour for an Nvidia H100 SXM5, published as $0.001097 per second. Modal's own worked example on the same page prices a fleet at $3.95 per GPU-hour. | $6.50 per hour for a dedicated H100 80GB. Baseten publishes $0.10833 per MINUTE — the hourly figure is that times 60, ours rather than Baseten's, and the page offers an hourly toggle. A100 80GB is $0.06667 a minute and B200 $0.16633. |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | A community Slack on the lower plans; private Slack support and embedded ML engineering services are Enterprise. Support is a plan feature here rather than something every tier carries. | Email and in-app chat support on Basic, which is pay-as-you-go from $0. Pro adds dedicated support on Slack and Zoom. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 compliance is listed as an Enterprise-plan feature on the pricing page, alongside HIPAA compatibility, audit logs, RBAC and SSO. No report or certificate is linked from the page itself. | Maintains SOC 2 Type II certification for the inference platform; policies and certifications are held in the Baseten Trust Center. |
| HIPAA | HIPAA compatibility is listed as an Enterprise-plan feature, grouped with SOC 2 and audit logs. The page says compatibility rather than a signed BAA. | Maintains HIPAA compliance alongside SOC 2 Type II for model inference on the Baseten platform. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Modal
- Yes
- Baseten
- No — New workspaces get starting credits for testing; usage beyond them is billed per minute.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“/ mo free PRICING PLANS Starter $0 + compute / month Built for small teams and independent developers looking to level up. Get started with”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Billing and usage - Baseten ↗
“Baseten doesn’t offer a separate free tier or perpetual free plan. [...] New workspaces receive credits for testing and deployment.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Entry paid plan
- Modal
- $0 a month on Starter — the plan carries no fee at all, and $30 of monthly compute is included before anything is billed. The first plan with a monthly fee is Team at $250.
- Baseten
- $0 per month on the Basic plan — pay as you go, with dedicated deployments, model APIs and training included rather than gated behind a fee.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“/ mo free PRICING PLANS Starter $0 + compute / month Built for small teams and independent developers looking to level up. Get started with”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Pricing — Baseten ↗
“Baseten $0 per month, pay as you go Get started [...] Included in Basic: Dedicated deployments Model APIs Training Fast cold starts SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Modal
- A platform fee plus metered compute, and the fee buys a compute allowance rather than access. Starter is $0 a month and includes $30 of compute; Team is $250 a month and includes $100. Compute is billed per second on top of both.
- Baseten
- No platform fee: per-token Model APIs for open models, and dedicated deployments billed per minute of compute with volume discounts. The Pro tier buys priority access to high-demand GPUs rather than a lower rate.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“/ mo free PRICING PLANS Starter $0 + compute / month Built for small teams and independent developers looking to level up. Get started with”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Pricing — Baseten ↗
“$0 per month, pay as you go [...] Only pay for the compute you use, down to the minute. Volume discounts available [...] Pro Unlimited autoscaling and priority compute access [...] Priority access to high-demand GPUs”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
H100 SXM, per GPU-hour
- Modal
- $3.95 per hour for an Nvidia H100 SXM5, published as $0.001097 per second. Modal's own worked example on the same page prices a fleet at $3.95 per GPU-hour.
- Baseten
- $6.50 per hour for a dedicated H100 80GB. Baseten publishes $0.10833 per MINUTE — the hourly figure is that times 60, ours rather than Baseten's, and the page offers an hourly toggle. A100 80GB is $0.06667 a minute and B200 $0.16633.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“H200 SXM $0.001261 / sec Nvidia H100 SXM5 $0.001097 / sec Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 $0.000842 / sec Nvidia A100, 80 GB $0.000694 / sec Nvidia A100”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Pricing — Baseten ↗
“Dedicated Deployments Only pay for the compute you use, down to the minute. [...] Price per Minute Hour [...] A100 80 GiB VRAM $0.06667 [...] H100 80 GiB VRAM $0.10833 [...] B200 180 GiB VRAM $0.16633”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Support on entry paid plan
- Modal
- A community Slack on the lower plans; private Slack support and embedded ML engineering services are Enterprise. Support is a plan feature here rather than something every tier carries.
- Baseten
- Email and in-app chat support on Basic, which is pay-as-you-go from $0. Pro adds dedicated support on Slack and Zoom.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“nvironment-level budgets Support via private Slack Audit logs, SAML SSO, and HIPAA Credit grants for startups Early-stage startups can get f”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Baseten Pricing ↗
“included in basic: dedicated deployments model apis training fast cold starts soc 2 type ii and hipaa compliant email and in-app chat support [...] hands-on engineering expertise dedicated support on slack and zoom”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing
SOC 2
- Modal
- SOC 2 compliance is listed as an Enterprise-plan feature on the pricing page, alongside HIPAA compatibility, audit logs, RBAC and SSO. No report or certificate is linked from the page itself.
- Baseten
- Maintains SOC 2 Type II certification for the inference platform; policies and certifications are held in the Baseten Trust Center.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“eering services Security SOC 2 compliance HIPAA compatibility Audit logs Static IP proxy RBAC SSO Frequently asked questions How does server”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Secure model inference - Baseten ↗
“Baseten maintains SOC 2 Type II certification and HIPAA compliance.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
HIPAA
- Modal
- HIPAA compatibility is listed as an Enterprise-plan feature, grouped with SOC 2 and audit logs. The page says compatibility rather than a signed BAA.
- Baseten
- Maintains HIPAA compliance alongside SOC 2 Type II for model inference on the Baseten platform.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Plans and Pricing — Modal ↗
“ecurity SOC 2 compliance HIPAA compatibility Audit logs Static IP proxy RBAC SSO Frequently asked questions How does serverless pricing diff”
Read 2026-09-17 · official pricing
- Secure model inference - Baseten ↗
“Baseten maintains SOC 2 Type II certification and HIPAA compliance.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Modal or Baseten?
Modal: $0 a month on Starter — the plan carries no fee at all, and $30 of monthly compute is included before anything is billed. The first plan with a monthly fee is Team at $250.
Baseten: $0 per month on the Basic plan — pay as you go, with dedicated deployments, model APIs and training included rather than gated behind a fee.
Free tier: Modal or Baseten?
Modal: Yes
Baseten: No — New workspaces get starting credits for testing; usage beyond them is billed per minute.
Should I choose Modal or Baseten?
Pick Modal if Bursty, self-deployed inference where the bill should follow the work. Compute meters per second and per CPU core — a physical core is $0.0000131 per core-second with a 0.125-core minimum — and the H100 hour is $3.95, the cheapest of the four here that publishes one.
Pick Baseten if Teams that want per-token APIs and dedicated GPUs from one vendor with no plan fee — minute-granularity billing means a model that runs for ten minutes costs ten minutes.