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Modal Serverless Gpu

  • 13 installs
  • 17 repo stars
  • Updated February 6, 2026
  • firecrawl/ai-research-skills

modal-serverless-gpu runs Python GPU jobs on Modal serverless platform.

About

The modal-serverless-gpu skill documents Modal serverless GPU platform for launching Python functions with @app.function decorators, GPU types T4 A10 A100, image builds, secrets, and scheduled jobs without managing clusters. Use when needing elastic GPU bursts, fine-tuning jobs, batch inference, or sandboxes replacing manual CUDA server provisioning. Quick start covers modal pip install, modal token set, stub definition, modal run CLI, and deployment to persistent apps. Patterns include parallel map over datasets, volume mounts for model weights, and web endpoint exposure.

  • Decorates Python functions for serverless GPU execution.
  • Supports T4 A10 A100 GPU class selection.
  • Deploys apps with modal deploy persistent endpoints.
  • Mounts volumes and secrets for training jobs.
  • Scales elastic GPU without cluster management.

Modal Serverless Gpu by the numbers

  • 13 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #834 of 1,039 Cloud & Infrastructure skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 4, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
At a glance

modal-serverless-gpu capabilities & compatibility

Capabilities
when to use modal criteria · quick start modal token run · gpu class selection patterns
Works with
aws
Use cases
devops · orchestration
Runs
Remote server
Pricing
Paid
npx skills add https://github.com/firecrawl/ai-research-skills --skill modal-serverless-gpu

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs13
repo stars17
Last updatedFebruary 6, 2026
Repositoryfirecrawl/ai-research-skills

How do I run a GPU training job on Modal?

Run serverless GPU Python functions and training jobs on Modal cloud.

Who is it for?

ML engineers needing burst GPU without owning clusters.

Skip if: Skip for local-only CPU development.

When should I use this skill?

User runs serverless GPU, Modal functions, or cloud training jobs.

What you get

Deployed Modal function or one-off run with GPU and secrets configured.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Modal Serverless GPU

Comprehensive guide to running ML workloads on Modal's serverless GPU cloud platform.

When to use Modal

Use Modal when:

  • Running GPU-intensive ML workloads without managing infrastructure
  • Deploying ML models as auto-scaling APIs
  • Running batch processing jobs (training, inference, data processing)
  • Need pay-per-second GPU pricing without idle costs
  • Prototyping ML applications quickly
  • Running scheduled jobs (cron-like workloads)

Key features:

  • Serverless GPUs: T4, L4, A10G, L40S, A100, H100, H200, B200 on-demand
  • Python-native: Define infrastructure in Python code, no YAML
  • Auto-scaling: Scale to zero, scale to 100+ GPUs instantly
  • Sub-second cold starts: Rust-based infrastructure for fast container launches
  • Container caching: Image layers cached for rapid iteration
  • Web endpoints: Deploy functions as REST APIs with zero-downtime updates

Use alternatives instead:

  • RunPod: For longer-running pods with persistent state
  • Lambda Labs: For reserved GPU instances
  • SkyPilot: For multi-cloud orchestration and cost optimization
  • Kubernetes: For complex multi-service architectures

Quick start

Installation

pip install modal
modal setup  # Opens browser for authentication

Hello World with GPU

import modal

app = modal.App("hello-gpu")

@app.function(gpu="T4")
def gpu_info():
    import subprocess
    return subprocess.run(["nvidia-smi"], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
    print(gpu_info.remote())

Run: modal run hello_gpu.py

Basic inference endpoint

import modal

app = modal.App("text-generation")
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().pip_install("transformers", "torch", "accelerate")

@app.cls(gpu="A10G", image=image)
class TextGenerator:
    @modal.enter()
    def load_model(self):
        from transformers import pipeline
        self.pipe = pipeline("text-generation", model="gpt2", device=0)

    @modal.method()
    def generate(self, prompt: str) -> str:
        return self.pipe(prompt, max_length=100)[0]["generated_text"]

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
    print(TextGenerator().generate.remote("Hello, world"))

Core concepts

Key components

ComponentPurpose
AppContainer for functions and resources
FunctionServerless function with compute specs
ClsClass-based functions with lifecycle hooks
ImageContainer image definition
VolumePersistent storage for models/data
SecretSecure credential storage

Execution modes

CommandDescription
modal run script.pyExecute and exit
modal serve script.pyDevelopment with live reload
modal deploy script.pyPersistent cloud deployment

GPU configuration

Available GPUs

GPUVRAMBest For
T416GBBudget inference, small models
L424GBInference, Ada Lovelace arch
A10G24GBTraining/inference, 3.3x faster than T4
L40S48GBRecommended for inference (best cost/perf)
A100-40GB40GBLarge model training
A100-80GB80GBVery large models
H10080GBFastest, FP8 + Transformer Engine
H200141GBAuto-upgrade from H100, 4.8TB/s bandwidth
B200LatestBlackwell architecture

GPU specification patterns

# Single GPU
@app.function(gpu="A100")

# Specific memory variant
@app.function(gpu="A100-80GB")

# Multiple GPUs (up to 8)
@app.function(gpu="H100:4")

# GPU with fallbacks
@app.function(gpu=["H100", "A100", "L40S"])

# Any available GPU
@app.function(gpu="any")

Container images

# Basic image with pip
image = modal.Image.debian_slim(python_version="3.11").pip_install(
    "torch==2.1.0", "transformers==4.36.0", "accelerate"
)

# From CUDA base
image = modal.Image.from_registry(
    "nvidia/cuda:12.1.0-cudnn8-devel-ubuntu22.04",
    add_python="3.11"
).pip_install("torch", "transformers")

# With system packages
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().apt_install("git", "ffmpeg").pip_install("whisper")

Persistent storage

volume = modal.Volume.from_name("model-cache", create_if_missing=True)

@app.function(gpu="A10G", volumes={"/models": volume})
def load_model():
    import os
    model_path = "/models/llama-7b"
    if not os.path.exists(model_path):
        model = download_model()
        model.save_pretrained(model_path)
        volume.commit()  # Persist changes
    return load_from_path(model_path)

Web endpoints

FastAPI endpoint decorator

@app.function()
@modal.fastapi_endpoint(method="POST")
def predict(text: str) -> dict:
    return {"result": model.predict(text)}

Full ASGI app

from fastapi import FastAPI
web_app = FastAPI()

@web_app.post("/predict")
async def predict(text: str):
    return {"result": await model.predict.remote.aio(text)}

@app.function()
@modal.asgi_app()
def fastapi_app():
    return web_app

Web endpoint types

DecoratorUse Case
@modal.fastapi_endpoint()Simple function → API
@modal.asgi_app()Full FastAPI/Starlette apps
@modal.wsgi_app()Django/Flask apps
@modal.web_server(port)Arbitrary HTTP servers

Dynamic batching

@app.function()
@modal.batched(max_batch_size=32, wait_ms=100)
async def batch_predict(inputs: list[str]) -> list[dict]:
    # Inputs automatically batched
    return model.batch_predict(inputs)

Secrets management

# Create secret
modal secret create huggingface HF_TOKEN=hf_xxx
@app.function(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("huggingface")])
def download_model():
    import os
    token = os.environ["HF_TOKEN"]

Scheduling

@app.function(schedule=modal.Cron("0 0 * * *"))  # Daily midnight
def daily_job():
    pass

@app.function(schedule=modal.Period(hours=1))
def hourly_job():
    pass

Performance optimization

Cold start mitigation

@app.function(
    container_idle_timeout=300,  # Keep warm 5 min
    allow_concurrent_inputs=10,  # Handle concurrent requests
)
def inference():
    pass

Model loading best practices

@app.cls(gpu="A100")
class Model:
    @modal.enter()  # Run once at container start
    def load(self):
        self.model = load_model()  # Load during warm-up

    @modal.method()
    def predict(self, x):
        return self.model(x)

Parallel processing

@app.function()
def process_item(item):
    return expensive_computation(item)

@app.function()
def run_parallel():
    items = list(range(1000))
    # Fan out to parallel containers
    results = list(process_item.map(items))
    return results

Common configuration

@app.function(
    gpu="A100",
    memory=32768,              # 32GB RAM
    cpu=4,                     # 4 CPU cores
    timeout=3600,              # 1 hour max
    container_idle_timeout=120,# Keep warm 2 min
    retries=3,                 # Retry on failure
    concurrency_limit=10,      # Max concurrent containers
)
def my_function():
    pass

Debugging

# Test locally
if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = my_function.local()

# View logs
# modal app logs my-app

Common issues

IssueSolution
Cold start latencyIncrease container_idle_timeout, use @modal.enter()
GPU OOMUse larger GPU (A100-80GB), enable gradient checkpointing
Image build failsPin dependency versions, check CUDA compatibility
Timeout errorsIncrease timeout, add checkpointing

References

  • [Advanced Usage](references/advanced-usage.md) - Multi-GPU, distributed training, cost optimization
  • [Troubleshooting](references/troubleshooting.md) - Common issues and solutions

Resources

  • Documentation: https://modal.com/docs
  • Examples: https://github.com/modal-labs/modal-examples
  • Pricing: https://modal.com/pricing
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/modal

Related skills

FAQ

What does modal-serverless-gpu do?

modal-serverless-gpu runs Python GPU jobs on Modal serverless platform.

When should I use modal-serverless-gpu?

User runs serverless GPU, Modal functions, or cloud training jobs.

Is this skill safe to install?

Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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