GPU cloud · head to head

Lambda vs RunPod

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

Lambda and RunPod at a glance
Fact	Lambda	RunPod
From	$2.29/hr	$0.34/hr
Free plan	No · No	No · No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up
Best for	GPU cloud focused on NVIDIA data-centre GPUs for training and inference.	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

Lambda plans and prices
Plan	Price	Specs / includes	Notes
B200 180GB SXM6 (1x instance)	$6.99/hr	B200 SXM6 · 26 vCPU · 360 GB RAM	Per GPU, 1x configuration (26 vCPU, 360 GiB RAM, 2.75 TiB SSD). Cheaper per GPU in bigger configs: 2x $6.89, 4x $6.79, 8x $6.69 (8x instance = 208 vCPU, 2900 GiB RAM). RAM is shown in GiB.
H100 80GB SXM (1x instance)	$4.29/hr	H100 SXM · 26 vCPU · 225 GB RAM	Per GPU, 1x configuration (26 vCPU, 225 GiB RAM, 2.75 TiB SSD). 2x $4.19, 4x $4.09 per GPU.
H100 80GB SXM (8x instance)	$3.99/hr	H100 SXM · 26 vCPU · 225 GB RAM	Per GPU in an 8-GPU instance. vCPU and RAM are the exact per-GPU share of the instance totals (208 vCPU / 8, 1800 GiB / 8). 22 TiB SSD per instance.
H100 80GB PCIe (1x instance)	$3.29/hr	H100 PCIe · 26 vCPU · 225 GB RAM	Per GPU, 1x configuration only (26 vCPU, 225 GiB RAM, 1 TiB SSD).
A100 80GB SXM (8x instance)	$2.79/hr	A100 SXM · 30 vCPU · 225 GB RAM	Per GPU in an 8-GPU instance; the 80GB A100 appears only in the 8x tab. vCPU and RAM are the exact per-GPU share of 240 vCPU / 1800 GiB. A100 40GB (SXM or PCIe) is $1.99/GPU/hr.
GH200 96GB (1x instance)	$2.29/hr	64 vCPU · 432 GB RAM	Per GPU, 1x configuration (64 vCPU, 432 GiB RAM, 4 TiB SSD).

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, Lambda or RunPod?

RunPod costs less to start: $0.34/hr against $2.29/hr for Lambda. Prices checked Oct 17, 2026 on each company's own site.

Do Lambda and RunPod have a free plan?

Lambda: No, we found no free plan or trial for Lambda. RunPod: No free credits; small referral bonus after a $10 top-up.

What else should I compare with Lambda and RunPod?

Other GPU cloud options we've checked: TensorDock ($0.35/hr), Vast.ai ($0.49/hr), DigitalOcean GPU Droplets ($0.76/hr), Modal ($1.10/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