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ModalvsSakura Internet AI Engine

Modal vs Sakura Internet AI Engine: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of Modal and Sakura Internet AI Engine — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.

Modal

Managed inference API — 10 shared-endpoint models with per-token pricing

Modal Shared Endpoints serve a fixed catalog of models from Modal-managed pools. Modal manages the hardware and autoscaling, and usage is billed per token. Shared Endpoints have model-specific concurrency limits on concurrent in-flight requests. Prices are published rates from modal.com/docs/guide/supported-models.md, re-read 2026-10-31.

InferenceCost-efficiencyOpen-sourceChat
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Sakura Internet AI Engine

Japanese cloud AI inference — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp models, priced in JPY per 10k tokens

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required for usage beyond that. Rates shown on this site are normalized to per-1M tokens for cross-provider comparison; the native per-10k-token unit is shown in the model table below.

ChatOpen-sourceJapanese NLPCost-efficiency
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Key metric comparison

Modal
Sakura Internet AI Engine
Cheapest input ($/1M)

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Cheapest output ($/1M)

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Peak throughput

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Best latency (TTFT)

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Intelligence score

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Context window

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Live token pricing

Strengths and weaknesses

Modal

Managed hardware and autoscaling — no infrastructure to operate
Published per-token rates including cached-input pricing
OpenAI-style per-token billing across all 10 models
Cached-input pricing available on every model in the catalog
Small fixed catalog of 10 models
Model-specific concurrency limits on shared pools
Prices are published rates re-read 2026-10-31, not continuously collected

Sakura Internet AI Engine

JPY-denominated pricing — predictable costs for Japan-based teams without FX exposure
Includes gpt-oss-120b and the Japanese-language-optimised llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4
3,000 free requests per month included before billing begins
Operated by a long-established Japanese cloud provider (Sakura Internet, est. 1996)
Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs
JPY pricing means non-JPY users carry currency risk

Key differentiators

Modal

Modal Shared Endpoints provide managed per-token inference on a fixed 10-model catalog with published cached-input pricing and no infrastructure to manage.

Sakura Internet AI Engine

JPY-denominated AI inference from a Japanese cloud provider — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp at ¥0.15/¥0.75 per 10k tokens (tax incl.), with 3,000 free requests/month.

Frequently asked questions

Modal FAQs

What models does Modal offer on Shared Endpoints?

Modal Shared Endpoints currently serve 10 models: GLM 5.3 Flash NVFP4, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash, Muse Spark Open, GLM 5.3, Inkling NVFP4, Qwen3.8-Max, Qwen3.8-Max VL, and Kimi K3. Use the model table above for per-model pricing and capability details. Source: Modal's published Shared Endpoints catalog, re-read 2026-10-31.

How much does Modal charge per 1M tokens?

Modal Shared Endpoints input prices range from $0.15/1M (GLM 5.3 Flash NVFP4) to $3.00/1M (Kimi K3). All models include cached-input pricing. See the model table for full per-model rates.

Does Modal offer prompt caching?

Yes. All 10 models in the Modal Shared Endpoints catalog have published cached-input pricing, ranging from $0.005/1M (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017) to $0.30/1M (Kimi K3). Depending on the model, the cached-input rate is 77.5% to 98% below the standard input rate. Source: Modal's published Shared Endpoints rates, re-read 2026-10-31.

Sakura Internet AI Engine FAQs

What is Sakura Internet AI Engine?

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). See ai.sakura.ad.jp/sakura-ai/ai-engine/ for current rates.

How much does Sakura Internet AI Engine cost?

Pricing is JPY 0.15 per 10,000 input tokens and JPY 0.75 per 10,000 output tokens, tax included. A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required beyond that. See ai.sakura.ad.jp/sakura-ai/ai-engine/ for current rates.

Is there a free tier on Sakura Internet AI Engine?

Yes. Sakura Internet AI Engine includes 3,000 free requests per month. A paid plan is required for usage beyond this allowance.

Provider resources

Modal

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Sakura Internet AI Engine

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Modal — Managed inference API — 10 shared-endpoint models with per-token pricing

Modal Shared Endpoints serve a fixed catalog of models from Modal-managed pools. Modal manages the hardware and autoscaling, and usage is billed per token. Shared Endpoints have model-specific concurrency limits on concurrent in-flight requests. Prices are published rates from modal.com/docs/guide/supported-models.md, re-read 2026-10-31.

Modal Shared Endpoints provide managed per-token inference on a fixed 10-model catalog with published cached-input pricing and no infrastructure to manage.

Sakura Internet AI Engine — Japanese cloud AI inference — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp models, priced in JPY per 10k tokens

Sakura Internet AI Engine is a Japanese cloud AI inference service offering gpt-oss-120b and llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4. Pricing is JPY 0.15 input / JPY 0.75 output per 10,000 tokens (tax included). A free allowance of 3,000 requests per month is included; a paid plan is required for usage beyond that. Rates shown on this site are normalized to per-1M tokens for cross-provider comparison; the native per-10k-token unit is shown in the model table below.

JPY-denominated AI inference from a Japanese cloud provider — gpt-oss-120b and LLM-jp at ¥0.15/¥0.75 per 10k tokens (tax incl.), with 3,000 free requests/month.

Key strengths compared

Modal

  • Managed hardware and autoscaling — no infrastructure to operate
  • Published per-token rates including cached-input pricing
  • OpenAI-style per-token billing across all 10 models
  • Small fixed catalog of 10 models
  • Model-specific concurrency limits on shared pools

Sakura Internet AI Engine

  • JPY-denominated pricing — predictable costs for Japan-based teams without FX exposure
  • Includes gpt-oss-120b and the Japanese-language-optimised llm-jp-3.1-8x13b-instruct4
  • 3,000 free requests per month included before billing begins
  • Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
  • Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs

Key weaknesses compared

Modal

  • Small fixed catalog of 10 models
  • Model-specific concurrency limits on shared pools
  • Prices are published rates re-read 2026-10-31, not continuously collected

Sakura Internet AI Engine

  • Paid plan required beyond the 3,000-request monthly free allowance
  • Small model catalog compared to global inference APIs
  • JPY pricing means non-JPY users carry currency risk

Provider category context

Modal is a inference api. Sakura Internet AI Engine is a cloud, founded in 1996. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.

How to choose between them

Choose Modal if you need managed hardware and autoscaling — no infrastructure to operate. Choose Sakura Internet AI Engine if you need jpy-denominated pricing — predictable costs for japan-based teams without fx exposure. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.