The GPU is rented; the box is not
One $23.37 server owns the bytes. One 48 GB L40S exists only while someone is calling it — and a public URL that starts a GPU is a billing surface before it is an API.
By Clifton Morris
Labels used throughout. [MEASURED] — a number from a capture or a live probe in this pack.
[FACT] — checkable in a document or the code. [OPINION] — mine, argued on top of the rest.
There are two machines in this system, and only one of them is a server.
The box is an OVH VPS-4: eight vCores, 24 GB of RAM, 200 GB of NVMe, a 3 Gbps pipe, $23.37 a
month, billed whether anyone visits or not. It owns the database, the stores, the scheduler, the
API, and the public front door. It has no GPU.
The GPU is a 48 GB L40S on Modal. It is not running right now. It runs when a request needs it,
for as long as the request and a cool-down tail take, and then it stops. When it is stopped, it
costs nothing — not “a small instance fee”, not “a reservation”, nothing. The model weights sit
in a volume that costs $0.15 a month [MEASURED, October snapshot].
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The proof pack — attachments
Included with the piece — 14 files, 95 KB. Sign in as a member to download.
- Reader brief — audit a metered GPU deployment 00-reader-brief.md · 6.5 KB · sha256 2eb624f0
- Audit phase 1 — deployment and cost snapshot (excerpt) audit-phase1-excerpt.md · 2.7 KB · sha256 b8180047
- Audit finding 008 — unauthenticated endpoints wake metered workers finding-008-unauth-wake.md · 7.7 KB · sha256 6590499e
- Audit finding 022 — proxy auth cannot prevent a wake finding-022-proxy-auth.md · 4.3 KB · sha256 38c61bbe
- Licence — personal use licence.md · 0.5 KB · sha256 cd1f7f1c
- Every number, with its source measurements.md · 3.1 KB · sha256 2d187698
- The combined app — one container, auth on every route metatron_combined.py · 11.5 KB · sha256 1a2ccd70
- The FLUX image worker (metatron_image.py) metatron_image.py · 9.9 KB · sha256 c76f076a
- The reader worker (metatron_reader.py) metatron_reader.py · 17.0 KB · sha256 1c2a26c7
- The genesis reader variant metatron_reader_genesis.py · 7.3 KB · sha256 f96c4b3d
- The image worker's API reference and measurements modal-image-api.md · 15.0 KB · sha256 9c69bc66
- The Modal runbook modal-readme.md · 5.9 KB · sha256 7ddae6ee
- How to reproduce the GPU measurements reproduce.md · 2.4 KB · sha256 202ccf7a
- The unauthenticated probe captures, 2026-10-01 unauth-probes.md · 1.4 KB · sha256 d1aaf2cb