Google Cloud A3 vs Modal H100
Modal H100 is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | Google Cloud A3 | Modal H100 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | No | No | — |
Source: Google pricing (May 2026) · Modal pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | Google Cloud A3 | Modal H100 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $5,095 | $2,884 | Modal H100saves $2,212/mo (43%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $10,191 | $5,767 | Modal H100saves $4,424/mo (43%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $5,095 | $2,884 | Modal H100saves $2,212/mo (43%) |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
Google Cloud A3
by Google
H100 instances on Compute Engine with fast interconnect, priced in line with the other hyperscalers and well above the specialists.
Modal H100
by Modal
Serverless GPUs billed per second with genuine scale-to-zero. The hourly rate is high because you never pay for idle — for bursty inference that inverts the comparison.
Common questions
- Is Google Cloud A3 or Modal H100 cheaper in 2026?
- Modal H100 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- Which has the better free tier, Google Cloud A3 or Modal H100?
- Neither publishes a free tier; both bill from the first unit of usage.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.