Exoscale vs RunPod Secure Cloud
General-purpose cloud against GPU specialist, priced against each other on the 3 GPUs both of them rent. Published per-GPU on-demand rates as each provider last stated them, with what their own pages say about billing, commitment and egress beside the numbers.
RunPod Secure Cloud is cheaper on 2 of the 3 cards both of them rent, by a median of 65%. Exoscale is cheaper on the other 1.
- How they sell
- General-purpose cloud A hosting company where GPUs sit beside the VPS products, on the same account and billing.
- GPU models
- 7 23 offers
- Registered in
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- How they sell
- GPU specialist An operator whose whole business is renting these cards.
- GPU models
- 19 19 offers
- Registered in
- 🇺🇸 United States
These are not the same product. A general-purpose cloud and a GPU specialist differ in who your counterparty is, which is why the rates below can be far apart without either being wrong. The prices are comparable; what stands behind them is not.
The 3 cards both of them rent, cheapest published per-GPU on-demand rate each. Dearest first.
| GPU | Exoscale | RunPod Secure Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB | $2.00/hr | $2.09/hr | 4% cheaper on Exoscale |
| NVIDIA A40 48GB | $1.05/hr | $0.49/hr | 53% cheaper on RunPod Secure Cloud |
| NVIDIA RTX A5000 24GB | $1.14/hr | $0.27/hr | 76% cheaper on RunPod Secure Cloud |
Per GPU per hour, on-demand list prices as each provider last published them. Rates exclude tax and vary by region; a cheaper rate is not the same machine, the same network or the same support.
| Exoscale | RunPod Secure Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing granularityOn short jobs this outweighs the rate: an hour minimum on a 90-second run costs more than a 30% dearer per-second rate. | Per second, flat rate across all zones | Per second |
| Minimum commitment | None on-demand; volume plans set one deliberately | None |
| Payment model | Pay only for what you consume | Prepaid credits; post-paid invoice for Enterprise |
| Free credits | not stated | $1,000 startup credits (application); referral rewards |
| Egress | Outbound transfer charged; rates on the calculator | Free |
| Uptime SLA | not stated | 99.99% SLA on Enterprise agreements; none on Community Cloud |
| Regions | European zones including Zurich (CH-DK-2) and Frankfurt (DE-FRA-1) | 31 regions across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia |
Neither site tells you whether your data trains their models, whether you get credits when it breaks, how long you have to dispute a bill or how much warning you get before maintenance. We looked on both and record the absence rather than filling it in — if you need any of it, ask before you commit.
- NVIDIA A30 24GB$0.74/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti 12GB$0.79/hr
- NVIDIA Tesla V100 16GB$0.83/hr
- NVIDIA L4 24GB$0.49/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB$0.50/hr
- NVIDIA RTX A6000 48GB$0.53/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB$0.74/hr
- NVIDIA L40 48GB$0.82/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB$0.84/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB$0.99/hr
- NVIDIA L40S 48GB$1.09/hr
- NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80GB$1.59/hr
- NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80GB$1.59/hr
- NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80GB$2.89/hr
- NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB$3.19/hr
Is Exoscale cheaper than RunPod Secure Cloud?
RunPod Secure Cloud is cheaper on 2 of the 3 cards both of them rent, by a median of 65%. Exoscale is cheaper on the other 1.
Which GPUs do Exoscale and RunPod Secure Cloud both rent?
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB, NVIDIA A40 48GB, NVIDIA RTX A5000 24GB — 3 in total, on published per-GPU on-demand rates.
What is the cheapest GPU at Exoscale and at RunPod Secure Cloud?
Of the cards both rent, Exoscale starts at $1.05 per GPU-hour and RunPod Secure Cloud at $0.27.
Are Exoscale and RunPod Secure Cloud the same kind of provider?
No. Exoscale is a general-purpose cloud — a hosting company where GPUs sit beside the VPS products, on the same account and billing. RunPod Secure Cloud is a GPU specialist — an operator whose whole business is renting these cards. The rates are comparable; what stands behind them is not.