HEAD-TO-HEAD · PRICES VERIFIED 2026-08-27
Beam vs Modal Sandboxes
Beam undercuts Modal on BOTH billing axes — $0.0675 vs $0.071/vCPU-hr and $0.02304 vs $0.024/GiB-hr — so Beam's computed bill is lower at every profile ($113.58 vs $119.00/mo at the reference, widening with RAM). The margin is thin enough that Modal's broader platform (serverless functions, GPUs, web endpoints in the same runtime) can easily justify the difference; on raw sandbox price alone, though, Beam wins cleanly.
Monthly Cost Across Realistic Benchmarks
Rate Card Snapshot
| Vendor | $/vCPU-hr | $/GiB-hr | Billing granularity | Concurrency note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beam (sandbox) | $0.0675 | $0.0230 | per 0.001s | No self-serve concurrency cap published at capture time. |
| Modal (Sandboxes) | $0.0710 | $0.0240 | per-second | Concurrency scales with plan; Starter $30/mo credits, Team $250/mo incl. $100/mo credits, Enterprise custom. |
Fit Notes
- Beam (sandbox) — Skip if you want the biggest platform — young product; fine for browser/computer-use sandboxes, thinner on compliance and regions than E2B or Modal.
- Modal (Sandboxes) — Skip if pure sandbox price is the decision — you pay ~40% over E2B/Daytona for the same vCPU-hour; Modal earns it back only when the rest of your stack already lives on Modal functions.
Beam (sandbox)
Strengths- Cheaper on both vCPU and GiB rates
- Millisecond billing only while code runs
- GPU-endpoint upgrade path on the same platform
- Younger platform, smaller ecosystem
- Premium-tier pricing either way vs the budget field
Modal (Sandboxes)
Strengths- One platform for sandboxes + functions + GPU inference
- Mature Python-first DX with decorators
- Large existing user base and docs
- Highest memory rate among ranked vendors except Beam/Runloop ties
- Sandbox product sits inside a larger (more complex) pricing surface
Run your own workload through the full interactive calculator, or browse all pairs on the comparisons hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is cheaper, Beam (sandbox) or Modal (Sandboxes)?
Beam undercuts Modal on BOTH billing axes — $0.0675 vs $0.071/vCPU-hr and $0.02304 vs $0.024/GiB-hr — so Beam's computed bill is lower at every profile ($113.58 vs $119.00/mo at the reference, widening with RAM). The margin is thin enough that Modal's broader platform (serverless functions, GPUs, web endpoints in the same runtime) can easily justify the difference; on raw sandbox price alone, though, Beam wins cleanly.
How were these Beam (sandbox) vs Modal (Sandboxes) costs computed?
Both vendors run identical workload profiles (sandbox-hours × vCPU/RAM) through the same engine using each vendor's captured USD list rates; the full methodology is on the agent-sandbox-pricing tool page.