RunPod Secure Cloud vs Vast.ai
GPU specialist against peer marketplace, priced against each other on the 13 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.
Vast.ai is cheaper on 13 of the 13 cards both of them rent, by a median of 42%.
- How they sell
- GPU specialist An operator whose whole business is renting these cards.
- GPU models
- 19 19 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
- 21 58 offers
- Registered in
- 🇺🇸 United States
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 13 cards both of them rent, cheapest published per-GPU on-demand rate each. Dearest first.
| GPU | RunPod Secure Cloud | Vast.ai | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA B200 SXM6 180GB | $6.79/hr | $6.25/hr | 8% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA H200 SXM5 141GB | $4.59/hr | $4.08/hr | 11% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB | $3.19/hr | $2.92/hr | 8% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80GB | $2.89/hr | $2.47/hr | 15% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA H100 SXM5 80GB | $3.49/hr | $1.87/hr | 46% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB | $2.09/hr | $1.01/hr | 52% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80GB | $1.59/hr | $0.74/hr | 54% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80GB | $1.59/hr | $0.67/hr | 58% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB | $0.99/hr | $0.47/hr | 52% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB | $0.84/hr | $0.54/hr | 36% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB | $0.74/hr | $0.43/hr | 42% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX A6000 48GB | $0.53/hr | $0.40/hr | 24% cheaper on Vast.ai |
| NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB | $0.50/hr | $0.12/hr | 76% cheaper on Vast.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.
| RunPod Secure Cloud | Vast.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Per second |
| Minimum commitment | None | $5 minimum to start |
| Payment model | Prepaid credits; post-paid invoice for Enterprise | Prepaid credits; optional auto top-up |
| Free credits | $1,000 startup credits (application); referral rewards | not stated |
| Egress | Free | Priced per byte by each host |
| Uptime SLA | 99.99% SLA on Enterprise agreements; none on Community Cloud | not stated |
| Regions | 31 regions across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia | 40+ data centres worldwide |
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 RTX A5000 24GB$0.27/hr
- NVIDIA A40 48GB$0.49/hr
- NVIDIA L4 24GB$0.49/hr
- NVIDIA L40 48GB$0.82/hr
- NVIDIA L40S 48GB$1.09/hr
- NVIDIA B300 SXM6 288GB$7.89/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 4070 12GB$0.14/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super 16GB$0.21/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB$0.27/hr
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell 24GB$0.27/hr
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell 32GB$0.35/hr
- NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16GB$0.64/hr
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48GB$0.79/hr
- NVIDIA H200 NVL 141GB$3.60/hr
Is RunPod Secure Cloud cheaper than Vast.ai?
Vast.ai is cheaper on 13 of the 13 cards both of them rent, by a median of 42%.
Which GPUs do RunPod Secure Cloud and Vast.ai both rent?
NVIDIA B200 SXM6 180GB, NVIDIA H200 SXM5 141GB, NVIDIA H100 NVL 94GB, NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80GB, NVIDIA H100 SXM5 80GB, NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96GB, NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80GB, NVIDIA A100 SXM4 80GB, NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB, NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB, NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB, NVIDIA RTX A6000 48GB, NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB — 13 in total, on published per-GPU on-demand rates.
What is the cheapest GPU at RunPod Secure Cloud and at Vast.ai?
Of the cards both rent, RunPod Secure Cloud starts at $0.50 per GPU-hour and Vast.ai at $0.12.
Are RunPod Secure Cloud and Vast.ai the same kind of provider?
No. RunPod Secure Cloud is a GPU specialist — an operator whose whole business is renting these cards. Vast.ai 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.