GPU cloud · head to head

Lambda 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.

Lambda and Vast.ai at a glance
Fact	Lambda	Vast.ai
From	$2.29/hr	$0.49/hr
Free plan	No · No	No · No free credits
Best for	GPU cloud focused on NVIDIA data-centre GPUs for training and inference.	A GPU rental marketplace where hosts set their own prices.
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).

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, Lambda or Vast.ai?

Vast.ai costs less to start: $0.49/hr against $2.29/hr for Lambda. Prices checked Oct 17, 2026 on each company's own site.

Do Lambda and Vast.ai have a free plan?

Lambda: No, we found no free plan or trial for Lambda. Vast.ai: No free credits.

What else should I compare with Lambda and Vast.ai?

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