Vast.ai Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide with plans, hidden costs, and cost analysis
Vast.ai costs $0.02/GPU/hour for Interruptible. Plans range from $0.02 to $6.25/GPU/hour.
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Is Vast.ai a fit?
Derived from this product's own pricing and contract record — not a review.
Best for
- Production workloads requiring guaranteed uptime
- Fault-tolerant batch training and inference
- Steady, long-running workloads with predictable demand
Not a fit if
- You want to try it before paying — there is no free plan and no trial.
- The sticker price is your whole budget — Serverless Inference Pricing Premium vs. API Alternatives (and 4 more).
All Vast.ai Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-Demand | $0.33 /user/month | Not published | Production workloads requiring guaranteed uptime |
| Verified pricing · last checked July 2026 · 3 sources
Get this price at Vast.ai →
| |||
| What's included at On-Demand Best for: Production workloads requiring guaranteed uptime
| |||
| Interruptible | $0.1 /user/month | Not published | Fault-tolerant batch training and inference |
| Verified pricing · last checked July 2026 · 3 sources
Get this price at Vast.ai →
| |||
| What's included at Interruptible Best for: Fault-tolerant batch training and inference
| |||
| Reserved | $0.2 /user/month | Not published | Steady, long-running workloads with predictable demand |
| Verified pricing · last checked July 2026 · 3 sources
Get this price at Vast.ai →
| |||
| What's included at Reserved Best for: Steady, long-running workloads with predictable demand
| |||
View all features by plan (compare side-by-side)
On-Demand
- Guaranteed uptime, no interruptions
- Per-second billing, no minimum hours
- Spin up/down anytime
- RTX 4090 from $0.33/hr
- RTX 5090 from $0.40/hr
- A100 SXM4 from $0.77/hr
- H100 SXM from $1.92/hr
- H200 from $3.93/hr, B200 from $5.94/hr
Interruptible
- 50%+ cheaper than on-demand rates
- Per-second billing, no minimum hours
- Preemptible — may be reclaimed by host
- Ideal for fault-tolerant batch workloads
- Checkpoint and resume supported
- Lowest entry: TESLA V100 from $0.02/hr
Reserved
- Up to 50% discount vs on-demand
- 1, 3, or 6-month commitment terms
- Guaranteed capacity for commitment period
- Volume discounts available
- Contact Sales required
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What does Vast.ai actually cost you?
Drag the slider. Pick a tier. Your projected spend updates as you go.
List price by tier (annualized, per unit)
Per-unit list price across Vast.ai's plans, annualized. Custom-priced tiers show a hatched bar.
Vast.ai costs $0.02 to $6.25 per GPU/hour as of August 2026, with 3 plans available. Plans: On-Demand at $0.33/GPU/hour, Interruptible at $0.1/GPU/hour, and Reserved at $0.2/GPU/hour. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Vast.ai offers 3 pricing tiers: On-Demand, Interruptible, Reserved. Paid plans include On-Demand at $0.33/user/month, Interruptible at $0.1/user/month, Reserved at $0.2/user/month. The Interruptible plan is fault-tolerant batch training and inference.
Compared to other ai/gpu cloud compute software, Vast.ai is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.
- 9 documented hidden costs beyond list price
How much does Vast.ai cost?
Vast.ai Pricing Overview
Vast.ai has 3 pricing plans ranging from $0.02 to $6.25/GPU/hour. The On-Demand plan costs $0.33/GPU/hour, best for production workloads requiring guaranteed uptime. The Interruptible plan costs $0.10/GPU/hour, best for fault-tolerant batch training and inference. The Reserved plan costs $0.20/GPU/hour, best for steady, long-running workloads with predictable demand.
There are at least 9 documented hidden costs beyond Vast.ai's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.
This pricing was last verified in July 27, 2026 from 3 independent sources.
Vast.ai pricing is usage-based, charged per hour with no free tier or trial. The Interruptible plan starts at approximately $0.10/hour for preemptible GPU instances, the Reserved plan at approximately $0.20/hour for committed capacity, and the On-Demand plan at approximately $0.30/hour for reliable, non-preemptible access. Actual GPU costs vary by hardware type — H100s have been cited at roughly $2.95/hour on the platform — and bandwidth usage is billed separately on top of the hourly rate.
How Vast.ai Pricing Compares
Compare Vast.ai pricing against top alternatives in AI/GPU Cloud Compute.
Compare Vast.ai vs Alternatives
Before committing to Vast.ai, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.
What Companies Actually Pay for Vast.ai
Vast.ai Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size
Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.
Running open-weight AI models such as DeepSeek or GLM via Vast.ai's serverless per-minute inference feature, with no GPU instance management required
Renting one H100 GPU on On-Demand at market rates for a multi-day training job
Using the Interruptible tier for non-critical experiments or batch workloads that can tolerate preemption
Reserved instance for stable, continuous workloads requiring guaranteed availability
Renting a high-end GPU instance from a Vast.ai Verified (data center) host for a full month, paid upfront. Suitable for sustained model training requiring higher host reliability.
Renting an H100 GPU via Vast.ai for high-performance AI training or large-model inference. At approximately 200-250 tokens/second throughput, can be competitive with API pricing for high-volume workloads.
Renting an RTX 3090 Ti on a low-cost instance for neural network training experiments or inference workloads that can tolerate occasional interruptions.
hn (2025-12-28)
How Vast.ai Pricing Compares
| Software | Starting Price | Top Price |
|---|---|---|
| Vast.ai | $0.02/GPU/hour | $6.25/GPU/hour |
| CoreWeave | $6.27/instance/hour | $68.8/instance/hour |
| DataCrunch | Custom | Custom |
| Hyperbolic | $0.16/GPU/hour | $3.5/GPU/hour |
| Jarvis Labs | $0.05/hr | $2.69/hr |
| Lambda | $0.69/GPU/hour | $6.99/GPU/hour |
Detailed pricing comparisons:
Vast.ai Contract Terms
Vast.ai contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require None — instances must be manually stopped and destroyed in the dashboard to halt billing. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.
How to Negotiate Vast.ai Pricing
Vast.ai contracts are negotiable. These 12 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.
The Interruptible tier at $0.10/hr is roughly 66% cheaper than On-Demand at $0.29/hr. Design training pipelines and batch workloads to checkpoint frequently so that preemption results in minimal wasted compute. This is the single highest-leverage cost reduction available on Vast.ai.
Current tier data analysisFor inference-only workloads, Vast.ai serverless pricing ($0.30/min, $18/hr) is substantially more expensive than token-based API providers. Evaluate whether you actually need raw GPU access or if an API provider would meet your needs at a fraction of the cost.
hn (2025-12-28)The Interruptible tier at ~$0.10/hour is significantly cheaper but can be preempted at any time. For workloads where data loss or interruption has real cost (lost compute time, re-running jobs), the On-Demand tier at ~$0.30/hour is often the better economic choice despite the higher headline price.
Trustpilot user reviewsStopping an instance without destroying it may continue billing on some configurations. Users report being charged after thinking a session was ended. Always explicitly destroy the instance and confirm it no longer appears in your active instances list.
Trustpilot user reviewsVast.ai continues billing as long as an instance is not explicitly stopped and destroyed in the dashboard. Leaving an instance in a stopped-but-not-destroyed state still incurs charges. Verify full termination in the dashboard after every session to prevent paying for idle or offline machines.
Trustpilot reviews (Apr 24, 2026)Vast.ai is a competitive GPU marketplace where individual hosts set their own prices. Sorting available instances by hourly rate often surfaces options well below the tier minimums listed, especially for older or less-popular GPU models that still handle many ML workloads adequately.
hn (2023-06-15)Unverified instances are cheaper but carry much higher rates of SSH failure, broken images, and unreliable performance. Filtering to Verified hosts reduces trial-and-error waste, which often negates the apparent savings of cheaper unverified machines.
Trustpilot user reviewsHN discussions note that RunPod and marketplace providers offer comparable or lower GPU pricing for many configurations. Vast.ai's serverless model API pricing (per-minute) can be significantly more expensive than per-token API pricing from providers like OpenRouter for inference use cases.
Hacker News discussionsUsers report advertised bandwidth (e.g., 1500Mbps) can be dramatically lower in practice (~100Mbps). For data-intensive workloads, test actual transfer speeds on a short session before committing to a longer rental to avoid cost overruns on bandwidth charges.
Trustpilot user reviewsVast.ai Verified hosts are data centers that have been vetted by the platform. While they may cost more than unverified consumer hosts, they reduce the probability of needing to rent multiple failed instances or experiencing silent GPU degradation. Note that reliability is not guaranteed even on Verified hosts per user reports.
Trustpilot reviews (multiple 2025-2026)Reserved instances at $0.20/hr offer more predictable availability than Interruptible at $0.10/hr, without paying the full On-Demand premium of $0.30/hr. For workloads running continuously over multiple days or weeks, Reserved provides a middle ground between cost and stability.
Current tier dataHN community members note that for high-throughput inference workloads, renting an H100 on Vast.ai at ~$2.95/hr and running open-weight models locally can be significantly cheaper per token than API-based providers. One commenter estimated ~200-250 tokens per second on an H100, yielding roughly 1 million tokens per hour. Calculate your token volume and compare total compute costs against API pricing before committing to a hosting model.
Hacker News (Jun 11, 2026)Vast.ai Price History
Pricing changes CostBench has tracked for Vast.ai, verified across 3 snapshots going back to 2026Q2.
-
Vast.ai price increase
Highest tier increased from $0 to $6/month
+1983.33% -
Vast.ai On-Demand increase
On-Demand tier increased from $0 to $0/month
+10%
Price stable over 0.3 years
View Vast.ai's full price history →
Vast.ai Pricing FAQ
01 How does Vast.ai pricing work?
Vast.ai operates as a GPU marketplace where independent hosts set their own prices based on supply and demand. Prices are dynamic and vary by GPU type, host reliability, location, and market conditions. You pay per second with no minimum commitment on on-demand instances. Interruptible instances are 50%+ cheaper but can be reclaimed by hosts. A $5 minimum deposit is required to start.
02 How much does an H100 cost on Vast.ai?
H100 GPUs on Vast.ai are available from approximately $1.47/hr on the marketplace, significantly cheaper than traditional cloud providers like AWS or Lambda Labs. Prices fluctuate with supply and demand — interruptible H100 instances can be even lower. For comparison, on-demand H100s on Lambda Labs list at $4.29/hr.
03 How much does an RTX 4090 cost on Vast.ai?
RTX 4090 instances on Vast.ai start from $0.29/hr for on-demand and can be lower on interruptible pricing. Stable on-demand instances typically run $0.39–$0.59/hr. This makes it one of the cheapest places to rent RTX 4090s for inference and fine-tuning workloads.
04 Does Vast.ai charge any platform fees?
Vast.ai does not charge platform fees or markups on top of host-set prices. You pay the host's listed rate directly. There are no hidden fees, though you also pay separately for storage and bandwidth at rates set by individual hosts.
05 Is Vast.ai reliable for production workloads?
Vast.ai's on-demand instances offer guaranteed uptime and are suitable for production inference. However, as a peer-to-peer marketplace, host reliability varies. Interruptible instances are not suitable for latency-sensitive or stateful production workloads. For critical workloads, on-demand instances from highly-rated hosts are recommended.
06 What is the difference between Vast.ai's Interruptible, Reserved, and On-Demand tiers?
Vast.ai offers three rental types: Interruptible instances start at $0.10/hr and are cheapest but can be preempted at any time by higher-bid jobs; Reserved instances at $0.20/hr offer a middle ground with more stability; On-Demand instances at $0.29/hr provide uninterrupted access for time-sensitive workloads. The right choice depends on how tolerant your workload is to interruption.
07 How does Vast.ai serverless pricing compare to using an AI API provider?
Vast.ai serverless model inference costs approximately $0.30/minute ($18/hour), which community users note is significantly more expensive than token-based API pricing from providers like OpenRouter. If you only need inference rather than flexible GPU access for training or custom workloads, dedicated API providers are likely to be cheaper.
08 Is Vast.ai cheaper than other GPU cloud rental platforms?
Community comparisons suggest Vast.ai is price-competitive in the GPU marketplace segment. Users have noted it offers significantly more resources per dollar than some competitors — for example, a 28-core/32GB RAM/2x RTX 3080 Ti configuration was cited as available on Vast for roughly half the cost of an equivalent Salad instance. However, competitors like RunPod are frequently mentioned as similarly priced alternatives worth benchmarking.
09 What are the three rental tiers on Vast.ai and when should I use each?
Vast.ai offers three instance types: Interruptible (starting ~$0.10/hour) for fault-tolerant workloads that can handle preemption; On-Demand (starting ~$0.30/hour) for workloads requiring reliable uptime without interruption; and Reserved (starting ~$0.20/hour) for longer-term committed capacity. Use Interruptible for batch jobs or experiments, On-Demand for active training runs, and Reserved when you need guaranteed access over a sustained period.
10 Does Vast.ai charge for bandwidth/data transfer separately?
Yes. Vast.ai charges for internet bandwidth in addition to the hourly GPU rate. Users have reported charges of approximately $2.50 per 100GB of data transferred. This can add up quickly for workloads involving large dataset downloads, model uploads, or frequent data movement between instances.
11 Will I be charged if my instance goes offline unexpectedly?
Based on user reports, yes — billing continues even when instances become inaccessible or are shut down without warning. Multiple users report being charged for hours of downtime they could not work through, and support has been reported to decline refunds. Always monitor your instance status actively and destroy instances you're not using.
12 How does Vast.ai compare in price to RunPod or other GPU marketplaces?
HN discussions suggest Vast.ai is generally competitive or cheaper than some alternatives like Salad.com and some dedicated cloud providers, but RunPod and similar marketplace providers offer comparable pricing for many GPU configurations. For inference use cases, per-token API providers like OpenRouter may be substantially cheaper than renting a full GPU instance for serverless inference workloads.
13 Is there a free trial or free tier on Vast.ai?
No. Vast.ai does not offer a free tier or free trial. Any GPU compute workload requires a funded account with prepaid credit balance. Charges begin immediately when an instance is launched.
14 How reliable are Vast.ai instances?
Reliability varies significantly by host and instance type. Many users report successful experiences, particularly for AI training workloads, but a substantial portion of reviews cite SSH connection failures, instances going offline without warning, broken container images, and GPU performance degradation by hosts. Filtering to Verified hosts and using On-Demand rather than Interruptible instances generally improves reliability.
15 What are the different billing modes on Vast.ai?
Vast.ai offers three instance types: Interruptible (starting at $0.10/hr), which are cheapest but can be reclaimed by the host at any time; Reserved ($0.20/hr), which offer more predictable availability; and On-Demand ($0.30/hr), which provide immediate access with lower interruption risk. Actual rates vary significantly by GPU model and host — high-end GPUs like the H100 run around $2.95/hr based on community reports.
16 Does Vast.ai charge for internet bandwidth in addition to GPU instance costs?
Yes. Vast.ai charges for internet bandwidth usage separately from the hourly GPU rate. At least one user reported a charge of $2.50 per 100GB transferred, incurred in just 20 minutes of use. This can be a significant surprise cost when downloading large AI model weights or moving training datasets to or from an instance.
17 What happens to billing if my Vast.ai instance goes offline or I lose access?
Based on multiple user reports, Vast.ai continues billing for an instance as long as it remains in a 'running' state in the system, even if you have no access to it. To stop charges, you must explicitly stop and destroy the instance in the Vast.ai dashboard. Support has largely declined to refund charges for time billed during outages or periods of inaccessibility.
18 How reliable are GPU instances on Vast.ai compared to managed cloud providers?
Reliability varies significantly by host and price tier. Many users report needing to try multiple instances before finding one that works, particularly at lower price points. Even Vast.ai Verified (data center) hosts have been reported to silently reduce GPU performance or allow instances to go offline without warning. Hacker News users describe Vast.ai as 'a relatively mature competitor' in the GPU marketplace space, but Trustpilot reviews skew heavily negative on reliability and support responsiveness.
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