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Modal vs Dolphin
Modal rents data center GPUs by the second for your own models. Dolphin serves one model per token on consumer GPUs.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Modal vs Dolphin: key differences
Modal runs any Python workload on GPUs from T4 to B300, with per-second billing, about one second of container boot and $30 of free credits each month. Dolphin's API launched in October 2026 with one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at $0.01 in and $0.07 out per million tokens, served by GPU owners who earn $POD tokens. It publishes no speed, context or SLA.
Modal fits teams that need control over models and code; Dolphin's open uncensored fine-tunes on Hugging Face are the kind of model it can host. Dolphin's API fits cheap background calls with nothing to deploy, if variable latency and a wallet-and-Telegram signup are acceptable.
What Modal and Dolphin do
Modal
Modal is serverless compute with GPUs attached. A developer decorates a Python function with the hardware it needs, such as gpu="H100", and Modal builds the container, schedules it, autoscales it and scales it back to zero. Billing runs per second with no minimum increment, from $0.59 an hour for a T4 to $3.95 for an H100 at list. Containers can hold up to 8 GPUs across T4 through B300.
Example models: none hosted by default; teams deploy their own, such as open LLMs on vLLM or Whisper
Full Modal profile
Dolphin
Dolphin began in 2023 as Eric Hartford's series of open-source, uncensored fine-tunes, trained to drop the refusals and baked-in guidelines of their base models so that the developer sets the rules through the system prompt. Current releases include Dolphin Llama 3.1 8B and Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition, built with Venice, and the project publishes nearly 100 models on Hugging Face. It also runs a chat app, a Telegram bot and a synthetic data service that generates answers to commonly refused prompts.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B
Full Dolphin profileShould you choose Modal or Dolphin?
Modal vs Dolphin at a glance
| Attribute | Modal |  Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Bring your own weights | Open weights, uncensored fine-tunes |
| Flagship models | None hosted | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B |
| Speed | ~1s container boot | Unknown |
| Price | Per second; H100 $3.95/hr list | $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | Run any training code | Own uncensored fine-tunes |
| Deployment | Serverless GPU containers | Decentralized serverless API |
| Long context | Depends on the model you deploy | Unknown |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Modal and Dolphin?
Modal rents data center GPUs by the second for your own models. Dolphin serves one model per token on consumer GPUs.
When should I choose Modal over Dolphin?
Serving your own models on demand; Per-second GPU billing; Batch jobs and fine-tuning.
When should I choose Dolphin over Modal?
Very cheap calls with nothing to deploy; Uncensored models; Requests nodes cannot log.
Is Modal or Dolphin cheaper?
Modal: Per second; H100 $3.95/hr list. Dolphin: $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
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