GPU cloud · head to head

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets vs RunPod

What each costs, whether there's a free plan, and what each is best for, from prices checked on their own sites.

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets and RunPod at a glance
Fact	DigitalOcean GPU Droplets	RunPod
From	$0.76/hr	$0.34/hr
Free plan	No · New-account credit; GPU use not confirmed	No · No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up
Best for	On-demand GPU Droplets (virtual machines) from DigitalOcean, which now includes Paperspace.	GPU cloud with on-demand pods, a cheaper Community Cloud and serverless GPU endpoints.
Checked	Oct 17, 2026	Oct 17, 2026
Website	Visit	Visit

The difference in short

RunPod costs less to start: $0.34/hr against $0.76/hr for DigitalOcean GPU Droplets.
Neither has a free plan; you pay from the start.

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
HGX H200 141GB	$4.47/hr	H200 (HGX) · 24 vCPU · 240 GB RAM	Per GPU. 1 or 8 GPUs per Droplet. vCPU/RAM as listed for the Droplet (RAM 240 GiB). 720 GiB NVMe boot disk + 5 TiB NVMe scratch, 15,000 GiB transfer.
HGX H100 80GB	$4.41/hr	H100 (HGX) · 20 vCPU · 240 GB RAM	Per GPU. 1 or 8 GPUs per Droplet. Page says 'NVIDIA HGX H100' and does not say SXM explicitly. RAM 240 GiB.
L40S 48GB	$1.57/hr	8 vCPU · 64 GB RAM	1 GPU per Droplet. RAM 64 GiB, 500 GiB NVMe boot disk, 10,000 GiB transfer.
RTX 6000 Ada 48GB	$1.57/hr	8 vCPU · 64 GB RAM	1 GPU per Droplet. RAM 64 GiB.
RTX 4000 Ada 20GB	$0.76/hr	8 vCPU · 32 GB RAM	1 GPU per Droplet. RAM 32 GiB.
AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB	$2.59/hr	AMD MI300X · 20 vCPU · 240 GB RAM	AMD, not NVIDIA. Per GPU, 1 or 8 GPUs per Droplet. MI325X 256GB is $3.80/GPU/hr (20 vCPU, 164 GiB RAM).

RunPod plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
RTX 4090 24GB (Secure Cloud)	$0.89/hr	6 vCPU · 41 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud price for the same GPU is $0.34/hr. Page default view is Secure Cloud; toggle switches to Community Cloud.
L40S 48GB (Secure Cloud)	$1.09/hr	16 vCPU · 94 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $0.79/hr.
A100 80GB PCIe (Secure Cloud)	$1.79/hr	A100 PCIe · 8 vCPU · 117 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $1.19/hr. A100 SXM 80GB (16 vCPU, 125 GB RAM) is also $1.79/hr Secure, $1.39/hr Community.
H100 80GB SXM (Secure Cloud)	$3.99/hr	H100 SXM · 20 vCPU · 125 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $2.69/hr. H100 PCIe 80GB (16 vCPU, 188 GB RAM) is $2.89/hr Secure, $1.99/hr Community. H100 NVL 94GB $3.19/hr Secure, $2.59/hr Community.
H200 141GB (Secure Cloud)	$5.29/hr	24 vCPU · 276 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $3.59/hr.
B200 180GB (Secure Cloud)	$7.99/hr	28 vCPU · 283 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $5.98/hr.
RTX 4090 24GB (Community Cloud)	$0.34/hr	—	Community Cloud: GPUs in vetted third-party data centres, cheaper than Secure Cloud.
RTX 5090 32GB (Secure Cloud)	$1.19/hr	9 vCPU · 35 GB RAM	Secure Cloud, per GPU. Community Cloud $0.69/hr.

Cheapest first where the prices compare.

Which is cheaper, DigitalOcean GPU Droplets or RunPod?

RunPod costs less to start: $0.34/hr against $0.76/hr for DigitalOcean GPU Droplets. Prices checked Oct 17, 2026 on each company's own site.

Do DigitalOcean GPU Droplets and RunPod have a free plan?

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets: No free plan. New-account credit; GPU use not confirmed. RunPod: No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up.

What else should I compare with DigitalOcean GPU Droplets and RunPod?

Other GPU cloud options we've checked: TensorDock ($0.35/hr), Vast.ai ($0.49/hr), Modal ($1.10/hr), Hyperstack ($1.35/hr).

Built from the prices and facts we checked on each company's own site. We haven't tested either hands-on.How we work