Modal
Modal is a serverless Python platform that runs scraping, AI, and data workloads at scale with configurable containers and autoscaling.
Modal is a serverless Python platform built for AI, data, and compute-intensive workloads at scale.
Key Features:
- Container Execution - Launch configured containers for responsive, on-demand scraping jobs.
- Native Browser Support - Run headless Playwright and Chromium browsers directly in serverless functions.
- GPU Access - Scale from CPU scraping to GPU-powered AI processing without infrastructure changes.
- Built-In Scheduling - Schedule recurring scraping jobs with cron-like triggers.
- Python-Native - Define infrastructure as Python code with decorators, no YAML or config files.
Whether you're running browser-based scrapers, processing extracted data with AI, or building batch pipelines, Modal provides serverless scale with a developer experience that feels local.
Web scraping workflow
How to use Modal in a web scraping pipeline
Modal executes application code in configured cloud containers. It can run a scraping pipeline's Python collection or document-processing stage while keeping its execution environment explicit in code.
A practical workflow
- Package your HTTP client, parser or document-processing dependencies in the selected container image.
- Invoke a function with a bounded input batch or references to saved captures, then perform acquisition or transformation inside your own code.
- Write accepted results and artifacts to external storage and return a compact run summary to the coordinator.
When it fits
Consider it when a Python pipeline needs an execution environment for on-demand processing rather than a permanently running application server. Treat acquisition, document conversion and enrichment as separate functions when their dependencies differ.
Boundaries
Modal is an execution platform, not a universal scraper. A browser workload still needs the required binaries and configuration. Set concurrency, timeouts and resource limits, keep credentials in the supported secret mechanism and make repeated calls safe; automatic container scaling does not implement per-domain collection limits.
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Our productOfficial client
modal-labs/modal-client
Stars
525Forks
138Last commit
2026-10-15License
Apache-2.0Language
Python
Metrics recorded 2026-10-16
Repository details
License source: Repository license file
Frequently asked questions
Is Modal free to use?
Modal’s Starter plan includes a limited monthly compute credit with no base subscription charge. Compute beyond the included usage is billed, and other plans have their own fees and allowances. The credit is not unlimited CPU or GPU execution.
Sources (checked ): Modal pricing
How much does Modal cost for GPUs?
Modal bills GPU compute by the selected hardware and time used. CPU, memory and other resources can contribute to the bill, and eligible plan credits offset only their documented usage. Use the current hardware rates and the expected execution time to estimate a job.
Sources (checked ): Modal pricing
Similar to Modal
Sources
Verified against the modal-labs/modal-client repository and the PyPI package.