Agentic Index
E2B vs Modal (2026)
E2B and Modal both give agents somewhere safe to run code, scoped differently: E2B is purpose built agent sandboxes (Hobby free with a one time 100 dollar credit and twenty concurrent sandboxes, Pro at 150 dollars a month with twenty four hour sessions, usage around ten cents an hour for a default sandbox), while Modal is general serverless compute billed per second across CPU, GPU, and memory (free Starter with 30 dollars in monthly credits, Team at 250 dollars a month), where sandboxes run at about a three times premium over preemptible rates. Choose E2B when the job is agent code execution, Modal when sandboxes are one workload inside broader compute needs including GPUs.
| At a glance | E2B | Modal |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Agent infrastructure | Agent infrastructure |
| Entry price | Free Hobby ($100 one time credit) · Pro $150/mo + per second usage | Free Starter ($30/mo credits); Team $250/mo; Enterprise; per second usage |
| Free / trial | Free Hobby tier, no card ($100 one time credit, 1 hour max sessions) | Free Starter tier with $30 a month in credits |
| Pricing confidence | public exact | public exact |
| Feature |
E
E2B
|
M
Modal
|
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
|
Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
|
Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
| Knowledge & context | ||
|
Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
|
Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
| Control & trust | ||
|
Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
|
Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
Partial | Partial |
|
Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Solution readiness | ||
|
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
| Platform extensibility | ||
|
Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
| Specialist automation | ||
|
Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
Partial | Partial |
Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing |
E
E2B
|
M
Modal
|
|---|---|---|
|
Entry price Lowest public entry point |
Free Hobby ($100 one time credit) · Pro $150/mo + per second usage | Free Starter ($30/mo credits); Team $250/mo; Enterprise; per second usage |
|
Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public — exact | Public — exact |
|
Billing Primary billing axis |
usage | per second compute (GPU, CPU, memory) |
|
Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
High variable cost | High variable cost |
|
Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
|
Free tier
|
|
Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Mixed |
Choose E2B if
- Sandboxed code execution for agents is the specific job to be done.
- Simple per second sandbox pricing around ten cents an hour is easy to model.
- Fast start with a free tier and generous concurrency covers your prototype.
Choose Modal if
- You also need GPU inference, batch jobs, or general serverless compute.
- One platform for all compute beats a point solution for sandboxes.
- Per second billing with no egress or storage fees on base rates fits your cost model.