The verdict
Vast.ai takes it, 4–1 on rounds.
On the published figures and the independent review sites, Vast.ai takes 4 of 6 rounds. Treat that as a starting point and check the current figures on both pages, because prices and plans move.
Choose Vast.ai if…
- • You want Vast.ai's edge on the cheapest h100 and the cheapest a100
Choose Lambda if…
- • You want Lambda's edge on what it costs to get your data out
Round by round
- Round 1The cheapest H100Vast.ai winsVast.ai8/10
$1.48/hr
H100 SXM
- the lowest H100 offer on the marketplace (offers seen ran from about $2 to $19)
Source: vast.ai ↗
Vast.ai wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 2The cheapest A100Vast.ai wins
Vast.ai wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 3How cheap you can startVast.ai winsVast.ai8/10
$0.02/hr
On-demand rate, GTX 1660 S — lowest of all listed GPUs (Tesla P100 from $0.03/hr, RTX A2000 from $0.03/hr)
- the lowest rate on the marketplace, for consumer GPUs
Source: vast.ai ↗
Vast.ai wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 4What it costs to get your data outLambda winsVast.ai5/10
Bandwidth charged both ways
billed per byte sent or received, at rates that vary by host
- Bandwidth charged both ways, against No egress fees
Source: docs.vast.ai ↗
Lambda wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 5How many places it runsVast.ai winsVast.ai8/10
40+ data centers
Marketplace coverage wording: 'Prices set by supply and demand across 40+ data centers.' Homepage also says 'On-demand instances across 40+ data centers and 20,000+ GPUs.'
- host locations on a marketplace, not data-center regions
Source: vast.ai ↗
Lambda5/1014 regions
on-demand cloud regions, though not every instance type is in every region
- 14 regions, against 500+ locations
Source: docs.lambda.ai ↗
Vast.ai wins this round on what the company itself publishes.
- Round 6Whether clusters get InfiniBandTieVast.ai7/10
Yes (Clusters)
marketplace GPU cloud (on-demand / interruptible / reserved)
Source: vast.ai ↗
Nothing to separate them here.
Side by side
- the lowest H100 offer on the marketplace (offers seen ran from about $2 to $19)
- the lowest A100 PCIe offer on the marketplace
- the lowest rate on the marketplace, for consumer GPUs
- host locations on a marketplace, not data-center regions
- the cheapest GPU on its price list, a Quadro RTX 6000
- A100, PCIe and SXM
- Bandwidth charged both ways, against No egress fees
- Bandwidth charged both ways, against Free
- Up to 50% off, against Up to 60% off
- $0.13, against Free GPU notebooks
- $3.99, against $1.99
- $1.99, against $1.19
- $6.69, against $5.98
- $0.69, against $0.34