Price checkPer GPU
On-Demand$0.33/GPU/moInterruptible$0.1/GPU/moReserved$0.2/GPU/mo
See all 3 plans

All Vast.ai Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
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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Tier
Billing
Your projected cost$8.25per month · $0.33/unit × 25units
Year 1 license$9912 months at this rate
At a glance

List price by tier (annualized, per unit)

Per-unit list price across Vast.ai's plans, annualized. Custom-priced tiers show a hatched bar.

On-Demand$3.96/yr
Interruptible$1.2/yr
Reserved$2.4/yr
Quick Answer
Last verified:
High confidence

Vast.ai costs $0.02 to $6.25 per GPU/hour as of September 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.

  • 13 documented hidden costs beyond list price
Last verified: | Sources: 3 pricing pages and reviews

How much does Vast.ai cost?

Vast.ai pricing ranges from $0.02 to $6.25/GPU/hour across 3 plans. Plans include On-Demand at $0.33/GPU/hour, Interruptible at $0.10/GPU/hour, Reserved at $0.20/GPU/hour.

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.

Vast.ai with a Hourly (no minimum contract term) minimum commitment.

There are at least 13 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.

See Vast.ai Plans

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.

Hyperbolic $0.3-$3.2/GPU/hour Compare → RunPod $0.34-$3.49/GPU/hour Compare → Lambda $0.69-$6.99/GPU/hour Compare →

Compare Vast.ai vs Alternatives

Before committing to Vast.ai, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.

VSHyperbolic
From $0.3/GPU/hour

Full comparison
VSRunPod
From $0.34/GPU/hour

Batch workloads, training runs, and cost-sensitive inference that can tolerate interruptions

Full comparison
VSLambda
From $0.69/GPU/hour

Development, fine-tuning, and small inference jobs

Full comparison

All Vast.ai alternatives & migration guides

What Companies Actually Pay for Vast.ai

Review scores
Trustpilot 2out of 5 (25)
Third-party review aggregates, as of Sep 2026
Top pricing complaints
Instances go offline unexpectedly with no refund for lost compute timeUnexpected bandwidth and egress charges on top of the hourly GPU rateUnrecognized credit card charges and account credits draining without clear causePoor customer support — slow responses, copy-paste or AI-generated answers, no real fixes

Vast.ai Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size

Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.

Serverless AI Inference (Single Model) $0 Year 1 total
$18/hour
Total $0

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

Single H100 — Short AI Training Run $2 Year 1 total
~$70.80/day
Total $2

Renting one H100 GPU on On-Demand at market rates for a multi-day training job

Interruptible GPU — Budget Experimentation From ~$0.10/hour (Interruptible tier starting price) Year 1 total
Interruptible tier starting price
Total From ~$0.10/hour (Interruptible tier starting price)

Using the Interruptible tier for non-critical experiments or batch workloads that can tolerate preemption

On-Demand Reserved GPU — Production Workload From ~$0.20/hour (Reserved tier starting price) Year 1 total
Reserved tier starting price
Total From ~$0.20/hour (Reserved tier starting price)

Reserved instance for stable, continuous workloads requiring guaranteed availability

Verified Data Center GPU Rental — Full Month $231 Year 1 total

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.

H100 GPU On-Demand Instance $2 Year 1 total

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.

Mid-Range GPU (RTX 3090 Ti) Low-Cost Instance $0 Year 1 total

Renting an RTX 3090 Ti on a low-cost instance for neural network training experiments or inference workloads that can tolerate occasional interruptions.

Individual Researcher — RTX 3090 Ti Instance $0 Year 1 total
approximately $103/month at 30 hours/week of active use
Total $0

A single ML researcher renting a verified RTX 3090 Ti GPU instance for model training and experimentation at reported market rates.

Full-Month Dedicated Verified Host $231 Year 1 total
upfront, verified host
Total $231

Renting a single verified GPU instance for a full calendar month of uninterrupted access, paid upfront to a data-center host.

High-End H100 Instance for AI Training or Inference $2 Year 1 total
approximately $2,124/month if run 24/7
Total $2

Running an NVIDIA H100 instance for intensive large-model training or high-throughput inference at spot market rates cited by HN commentators.

AI Researcher Running H100 Training Jobs $2 Year 1 total
~$2,124/month running continuously
Total $2

Single NVIDIA H100 GPU rented on On-Demand for model training. Continuous 24/7 usage for one month.

Budget Training on RTX 3090 Ti $0 Year 1 total
~$103/month running 24/7
Total $0

Entry-level training on a mid-range GPU from an unverified host, hourly billing.

One-Month Dedicated GPU Rental $231 Year 1 total

Single GPU instance prepaid for a full month for sustained training or inference workloads.

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:

Browse all AI/GPU Cloud Compute pricing →

13 Vast.ai Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, Vast.ai has at least 13 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 13 hidden costs
  • Serverless Inference Pricing Premium vs. API Alternatives $18/hr
    high 1 source
    Hacker News "vast offers serverless per minute AI models so checking it for something like https://vast.ai/model/deepseek-v3.2-exp or even glm 3.6 basically every of these turns out to be $.30 cents/minute or 18$ per hour"
  • Interruptible Instance Interruption Loss 10-30% of license costs
    medium 1 source
    Hacker News "Your pricing is around 50-100% higher than vast.ai, a relatively mature competitor in this space who offers the same GPUs and more with beefier rigs."
  • Internet Bandwidth/Egress Charges $5-$50
    high 3 sources
    Trustpilot "On top of the price/h of your specific server you will be also charged ungodly amounts for ***internet bandwidth*** in my case it was $2.5/100gb. keep in mind that i only used the instance for 20 minutes."
    Trustpilot "Support claimed the charge was only $1.20 for a model download, which is an unacceptable excuse for downtime and unfair billing."
    Trustpilot "Bandwidths stated on machine descriptions are totally fake. A claimed 1500Mbps is barely 100Mbps."
  • Billing Continues After Instance Becomes Inaccessible 5-25% of total spend
    critical 4 sources
    Trustpilot "I rented a high-end GPU server (RTX 3090 Ti) on Vast.ai with strong specs and a price around $0.143/hour (~0.54 SAR/hour). However, the service is practically unusable."
    Trustpilot "Vast.ai continued to charge my account, even though I had zero access to the server. This is unacceptable for a service that claims to be reliable and user-friendly."
    Trustpilot "I started a verified VM instance, which then was running for almost a day. Checking the progress on the next day, I found that the instance was turned offline without any warning somewhere along the way, meaning that I cannot access my data."
    Trustpilot "if you don't stop the instance before destroying THEY WILL charge you further as they still consider it to be running."
  • Charges for Inaccessible or Offline Instances 10-100% of license costs
    critical 4 sources
    Trustpilot "Highly disappointing. Despite logs showing startup completion, initialization took over 10 minutes and the UI never loaded—stuck on "running" the entire time. I was charged $1.70 for ~20 minutes of completely non-functional service."
    Trustpilot "Rented instances removed GPUs while still charging the full price. They restarted my instances without warning on multiple occasions."
    Trustpilot "Vast.ai continued to charge my account, even though I had zero access to the server. This is unacceptable for a service that claims to be reliable and user-friendly."
    Trustpilot "I decided to quit after I was charged for what effectively are "services not provided". I started a verified VM instance, which then was running for almost a day."
  • GPU Performance Degradation Without Price Adjustment 10-25% effective cost increase
    high 2 sources
    Trustpilot "I discovered the host had silently reduced the GPU performance by 22% with no notice and no price adjustment — I was paying full price for a degraded machine."
    Trustpilot "Rented instances removed GPUs while still charging the full price. They restarted my instances without warning on multiple occasions."
  • Trial-and-Error Cost from Unreliable Instances 5-20% of total spend
    medium 1 source
    Trustpilot "I had to rent five different instances before finding one that actually worked, which was a waste of both time and money (not a huge amount). It’s honestly hair-pulling frustrating."
  • Data Loss Risk from Sudden Instance Termination 5-15% of license costs
    critical 2 sources
    Trustpilot "your instance gpus can get scheduled from another guy and you have to copy data which costs bandwidth to another instance just so you can open another even if its targeted as "on demand""
    Trustpilot "My data was stuck on a machine I couldn’t access, my time was wasted for more than 24 hours, and the overall stress caused by their unresponsive support was simply terrible."
  • Cost of Renting Multiple Failed Instances Before Finding a Working One 5-20% of license costs
    high 2 sources
    Trustpilot "I had to rent five different instances before finding one that actually worked, which was a waste of both time and money (not a huge amount). It's honestly hair-pulling frustrating."
    Trustpilot "Good cloud provider, but a lot of bad / non working machines in there. Even if you report a non working instance is uses your credits and never gets removed. Hard to find a good one. I'd finally gave up and bought a GPU. Only wasted money."
    Trustpilot "Many of the lowest-priced instances are full of bugs and issues. In the end, those supposedly cheap options don't function properly, and the ones that do work are the more expensive ones."
  • Wasted Spend on Failed or Buggy Instance Starts 5-30% of license costs
    medium 1 source
    Trustpilot "I had to rent five different instances before finding one that actually worked, which was a waste of both time and money (not a huge amount)."
    Trustpilot "Many of the lowest-priced instances are full of bugs and issues. In the end, those supposedly cheap options don't function properly, and the ones that do work are the more expensive ones."
  • Data Transfer Costs When Migrating Between Instances $2-$25
    medium 2 sources
    Trustpilot "your instance gpus can get scheduled from another guy and you have to copy data which costs bandwidth to another instance just so you can open another even if its targeted as "on demand""
    Trustpilot "Sometimes my instances just stop but that can be ameliorated by aggressive checkpointing."
  • Continued Billing After Instance Destruction $0.10-$3.00/hour of unintended GPU billing
    medium 1 source
    Trustpilot "if you don't stop the instance before destroying THEY WILL charge you further as they still consider it to be running."
  • Auto Top-Off Unintended Charges Variable — multiple unrecognized credit card charges reported
    medium 1 source
    Trustpilot "I got unrecognized charges. Auto top-off was disabled, my card wasn't saved and my instances was deleted yet I still got charged. My account credit was going down on its own. Do not give this company your credit card."
Tip

Ask your Vast.ai sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Intelligence sourced from 2 independent sources
Hacker News Tech community Trustpilot Consumer reviews
Key claims include inline source attribution. Data verified against multiple independent sources. 45 source citations total.

Vast.ai Contract Terms

Vast.ai contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require Instances can be stopped at any time; no subscription renewal period. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.

Contract Terms
Auto-Renewal No
Cancellation Notice Instances can be stopped at any time; no subscription renewal period
Minimum Commitment Hourly (no minimum contract term)
Mid-Term Downgrade Allowed
Payment Terms Pay-as-you-go credit system; account balance pre-funded, auto top-off optional
Price Escalation No published price escalation schedule; marketplace rates fluctuate based on host supply and demand
Note

Users can switch between On-Demand, Interruptible, and Reserved tiers, but switching may require migrating data to a new instance

Based on 1 verified source

How to Negotiate Vast.ai Pricing

Vast.ai contracts are negotiable. These 17 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.

Negotiation Playbook 17 tactics
Use Interruptible Tier for Checkpoint-Tolerant Workloads high success

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 analysis
Compare Vast.ai Serverless vs. API Providers Before Choosing high success

For 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)
Choose On-Demand Over Interruptible for Critical Work high success

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 reviews
Always Destroy (Not Just Stop) Instances When Done high success

Stopping 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 reviews
Always Stop and Destroy Instances Immediately After Use high success

Vast.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)
Compare Live Marketplace Prices Against RunPod and TensorDock Before Committing high success

Vast.ai is a marketplace with fluctuating prices. HN commentators note that competitors like RunPod can be cheaper on specific GPU models (e.g., A100 80GB: RunPod at $1.99/hr vs. competing services at $2.41/hr at time of comparison). Always spot-check current prices on RunPod and TensorDock before launching a large job.

HN comment (mattpavelle, May 2023); HN comment (MacsHeadroom, Jun 2023)
Budget for Bandwidth Costs on Data-Heavy Workloads high success

Bandwidth charges ($2.50/100GB reported) are billed separately from compute. Before launching a job that downloads large models (e.g., 70B+ parameter weights), streaming datasets, or migrating data between instances, estimate bandwidth consumption and include it in your cost model to avoid billing surprises.

Trustpilot review (Apr 24, 2026)
Sort Marketplace Listings by Price medium success

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)
Filter for Verified Hosts Only medium success

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 reviews
Compare Against RunPod and Serverless API Pricing medium success

HN 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 discussions
Check Actual Bandwidth Before Committing to Data-Heavy Workloads medium success

Users 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 reviews
Use Verified Hosts for Production or Long-Running Workloads medium success

Vast.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)
Use Reserved Instances for Predictable Multi-Day Workloads medium success

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 data
Compare Vast.ai GPU Costs vs. API Provider Token Pricing at Your Scale medium success

HN 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)
Filter Exclusively for Verified Hosts with High Reliability Scores medium success

Vast.ai's marketplace includes unverified hosts whose machines are significantly more likely to have SSH failures, connectivity issues, and unexpected shutdowns. Filtering for verified hosts with high reliability scores increases effective uptime and reduces wasted spend on failed instances, even if the listed hourly rate is slightly higher.

Multiple Trustpilot reviews (2026)
Disable Auto Top-Off and Set a Manual Credit Ceiling medium success

Auto top-off can silently charge your payment method when balance runs low — including during periods of anomalous billing caused by platform issues. Disable auto top-off and fund your account manually in controlled increments to cap exposure to unexpected charges.

Trustpilot review (unrecognized charges complaint, 2026)
Filter to Verified Hosts Only to Reduce Wasted Spend medium success

Verified hosts cost slightly more but are significantly more reliable. Given that multiple reviewers report renting three to five unverified instances before finding a working one — all billed — the effective cost of cheap unverified instances often exceeds the sticker price. Filtering to Verified reduces wasted spend on non-functional rentals.

Trustpilot reviews (multiple, 2026)
High success Medium Low / difficult

Full negotiation guide →

Vast.ai Price History

Pricing changes CostBench has tracked for Vast.ai, verified across 3 snapshots going back to 2026Q2.

  1. Vast.ai price increase

    Highest tier increased from $0 to $6/month

    +1983.33%

  2. 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.

19 What are the three instance types on Vast.ai and how do their prices differ?

Vast.ai offers On-Demand instances (starting at $0.33/hr) for the most stable access, Reserved instances (starting at $0.20/hr) for committed capacity, and Interruptible instances (starting at $0.10/hr) for workloads that can tolerate preemption. Actual prices vary significantly by GPU model — consumer GPUs like the RTX 3090 Ti can run under $0.15/hr while high-end data center GPUs such as the H100 reach $2.95/hr or higher.

20 Are there bandwidth charges on top of the GPU hourly rate?

Yes. Internet bandwidth is billed separately from compute at a reported rate of $2.50 per 100GB. This cost can appear unexpectedly for workloads that download large model weights, stream training datasets, or need to migrate data between instances after an unexpected termination.

21 Is Vast.ai cheaper than major cloud providers like AWS or Google Cloud?

For raw GPU compute, Vast.ai's marketplace pricing is generally lower than major cloud providers. HN commentators place an H100 at approximately $2.95/hr on Vast.ai. However, reliability issues, unexpected bandwidth charges, and lack of refunds for downtime can partially erode that cost advantage — especially on longer or more complex jobs.

22 What happens to my data if an instance is terminated unexpectedly?

Data stored on the instance's local disk becomes inaccessible. If the host comes back online, reconnection is not guaranteed. Users are advised to implement aggressive checkpointing to external storage or object storage (e.g., S3-compatible) so that work can be resumed on a new instance. Migrating data to a new instance incurs bandwidth charges at $2.50/100GB.

23 When should I use Interruptible vs On-Demand pricing?

Use Interruptible instances ($0.10/GPU-hour) for training jobs that support checkpointing — they are about 70% cheaper than On-Demand ($0.33/GPU-hour) but can be preempted at any time. Use On-Demand for inference workloads, time-sensitive jobs, or any workload where interruptions would cause significant data loss or downtime.

Is this pricing incorrect? — we'll verify and update it.