Modal vs NovitaSandbox Benchmark Comparison

Modal
Faster in 1 of 2
vs
Novita
Faster in 1 of 2

Modal and Novita were each faster in 1 of 2 shared sandbox benchmarks.

Shared benchmarks
2
Last run
October 30, 2026
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Scorecard

Median of each benchmark's primary metric; lower is better. Medians within 5% count as roughly even, and a benchmark gets no speed verdict when either provider completed fewer than 50% of runs.

BenchmarkModalNovitaResultRatio
Burst TTI
Time to interactive · Run October 30, 2026
751ms
100% success
1.41s
100% success
Modal faster
1.88x
DAX
Total workload time · Run October 30, 2026
105.55s
100% success
81.07s
100% success
Novita faster
1.30x

Burst TTI

Run October 30, 2026

Time from sandbox creation to the first successful command, with 100 sandboxes launched at the same time.

Time to interactive

Modal

100% success
Median
751ms
P95
972ms
P99
996ms
Modal Burst TTI results →

Novita

100% success
Median
1.41s
P95
1.99s
P99
2.03s
Novita Burst TTI results →

Modal had a 1.88x lower median time to interactive (751ms vs 1.41s for Novita).

Median time to interactive over time

4 runs from October 16, 2026 to October 30, 2026.

ModalNovita
View the full Burst TTI leaderboard →

DAX

Run October 30, 2026

A real developer workload: install system packages, download Bun, clone the opencode repo, then run bun install and bun typecheck.

Total workload time

Modal

100% success
Median
105.55s
P95
105.55s
P99
105.55s
Modal DAX results →

Novita

100% success
Median
81.07s
P95
81.07s
P99
81.07s
Novita DAX results →

Novita had a 1.30x lower median total workload time (81.07s vs 105.55s for Modal).

Median total workload time over time

3 runs from October 16, 2026 to October 30, 2026.

ModalNovita
View the full DAX leaderboard →

Methodology

  • One workload, every provider. The same script, payload, and model hit every provider, addressed the way its own API expects. Nobody gets a tuned or special path.
  • Repeated on a schedule. Every suite runs many iterations per provider, automated on a recurring schedule, so results reflect steady state rather than one lucky request.
  • Raw results published. Every run is committed as JSON to the public benchmarks repo, next to the code that produced it. Nothing is cherry-picked or held back.
  • How this comparison is built. Each benchmark compares the two providers' medians; results within 5% count as roughly even. A comparison is published only when both providers completed at least 50% of runs in 2 or more shared benchmarks run in the last 30 days.

Frequently asked questions

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Modal and Novita were each faster in 1 of 2 shared sandbox benchmarks. In Burst TTI (October 30, 2026), Modal had a median time to interactive of 751ms versus 1.41s for Novita, 1.88x faster. In DAX (October 30, 2026), Novita had a median total workload time of 81.07s versus 105.55s for Modal, 1.30x faster.

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