GPU cloud · head to head

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets vs Vast.ai

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 Vast.ai at a glance
Fact	DigitalOcean GPU Droplets	Vast.ai
From	$0.76/hr	$0.49/hr
Free plan	No · New-account credit; GPU use not confirmed	No · No free credits
Best for	On-demand GPU Droplets (virtual machines) from DigitalOcean, which now includes Paperspace.	A GPU rental marketplace where hosts set their own prices.
Checked	Oct 17, 2026	Oct 17, 2026
Website	Visit	Visit

The difference in short

Vast.ai costs less to start: $0.49/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).

Vast.ai plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
RTX 4090 24GB	$0.49/hr	—	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $0.49 (feed: 0.4947); lowest offer 'from' $0.13 (0.1343); p10 0.4014; 437 offers at time of read. vCPU/RAM depend on the host.
RTX 5090 32GB	$0.64/hr	—	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $0.64 (feed: 0.6358); lowest offer 'from' $0.37 (0.3737); p10 0.4697; 572 offers.
L40S 48GB	$0.64/hr	—	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $0.64 (feed: 0.6406); lowest offer 'from' $0.43 (0.4274); p10 0.4281; 74 offers.
A100 80GB SXM4	$0.73/hr	A100 SXM4	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $0.73 (feed: 0.7347); lowest offer 'from' $0.43 (0.4271); 126 offers. A100 PCIE 80GB: median $0.73 (0.7337), lowest $0.37 (0.3676), 117 offers.
H100 80GB SXM	$2.40/hr	H100 SXM	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $2.40 (feed: 2.4007); lowest offer 'from' $1.73 (1.7337); 31 offers. H100 PCIE: median $2.47, lowest $2.34. H100 NVL: median $2.49, lowest $1.63.
B200 192GB	$9.38/hr	—	Marketplace, varies by host. Median $9.38 (feed: 9.3759); lowest offer 'from' $6.25 (6.2513); 33 offers.

Cheapest first where the prices compare.

Which is cheaper, DigitalOcean GPU Droplets or Vast.ai?

Vast.ai costs less to start: $0.49/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 Vast.ai have a free plan?

DigitalOcean GPU Droplets: No free plan. New-account credit; GPU use not confirmed. Vast.ai: No free credits.

What else should I compare with DigitalOcean GPU Droplets and Vast.ai?

Other GPU cloud options we've checked: RunPod ($0.34/hr), TensorDock ($0.35/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