M 
Modal
Serverless GPU compute you invoke from a Python decorator.
NOT REALLY
why this verdict
Keep it — Anthropic has not replaced it
Anthropic's version overlaps, but does not finish the dev tools job, so this one is still worth keeping open.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Managed inference APIs remove the need to run your own GPUs. Anthropic, January 1, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 1 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: Replicate.
- What the call is worth nothing to cancel
- No paid entry tier tracked, so there is no subscription to cancel.
Reason composed from the fields above missing: announcement linked recorded: free replacement listed recorded: two or more escape hatches
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- January 1, 2025
- List price
- free
- Per year
- —
The backstory
Modal made running a model as easy as decorating a function, with cold starts fast enough that GPUs can scale to zero. Hosted inference APIs cover the popular models, but anyone fine-tuning, batch-processing or serving something custom still needs raw compute with no ops team.
Escape hatches
R 
Replicate Simpler for standard models.
replicate.com open_in_new R 
RunPod Cheaper raw GPU rental.
runpod.io open_in_new B 
Baseten Focused on production inference.
baseten.co open_in_new1 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.
