packet.ai vs Spheron
GPU specialist against peer marketplace, 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.
packet.ai is cheaper on 2 of the 3 cards both of them rent, by a median of 12%. The two match on 1 of the rest.
- How they sell
- GPU specialist An operator whose whole business is renting these cards.
- GPU models
- 7 7 offers
- Registered in
- 🇺🇸 United States
- How they sell
- Peer marketplace A stranger whose machine the platform vets to some degree. Reliability, bandwidth and how long the machine stays online vary by host, not just by price.
- GPU models
- 11 17 offers
- Registered in
- 🇸🇬 Singapore
These are not the same product. A GPU specialist and a peer marketplace 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 | packet.ai | Spheron | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA A100 80GB | $1.43/hr | $1.43/hr | same |
| NVIDIA L40S 48GB | $0.92/hr | $0.96/hr | 4% cheaper on packet.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB | $0.39/hr | $0.48/hr | 19% cheaper on packet.ai |
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.
| packet.ai | Spheron | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Hourly, per-second metered | Per minute |
| Minimum commitment | None on hourly | None on dedicated or spot |
| Payment model | Prepaid wallet · subscription · invoice | Prepaid credits, USD; enterprise invoicing on request |
| Free credits | $10 + 10k tokens | not stated |
| Egress | Free | Network bandwidth included in the hourly rate |
| Uptime SLA | 99% monthly (Dedicated) | 99.9% |
| Regions | California, Virginia, Texas, Oregon, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Dublin | North America, Europe, Asia Pacific |
Neither site tells you whether private networking exists. We looked on both and record the absence rather than filling it in — if you need any of it, ask before you commit.
Nothing the other does not also rent.
- NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB$0.68/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB$0.78/hr
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB$2.35/hr
- NVIDIA GH200 96GB$3.02/hr
- NVIDIA H200 SXM5 141GB$5.65/hr
- NVIDIA B300 SXM6 288GB$10.37/hr
Is packet.ai cheaper than Spheron?
packet.ai is cheaper on 2 of the 3 cards both of them rent, by a median of 12%. The two match on 1 of the rest.
Which GPUs do packet.ai and Spheron both rent?
NVIDIA A100 80GB, NVIDIA L40S 48GB, NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB — 3 in total, on published per-GPU on-demand rates.
What is the cheapest GPU at packet.ai and at Spheron?
Of the cards both rent, packet.ai starts at $0.39 per GPU-hour and Spheron at $0.48.
Are packet.ai and Spheron the same kind of provider?
No. packet.ai is a GPU specialist — an operator whose whole business is renting these cards. Spheron is a peer marketplace — a stranger whose machine the platform vets to some degree. Reliability, bandwidth and how long the machine stays online vary by host, not just by price. The rates are comparable; what stands behind them is not.