On-demand, spot and reserved compute prices

On demand means you start a machine when you want it and stop it when you are done. You pay for the time it ran. The provider cannot take it back while it runs. It is the highest of the three prices, and the only one with no strings.

Spot is spare capacity sold for less. The provider can take the machine back at short notice. That suits work that can stop and resume, such as a batch job or a training run that saves checkpoints. It does not suit anything that serves users.

Reserved means you commit to a term: a month, a year, sometimes longer. The hourly figure is lower, and the term is often paid ahead. You pay for every hour of the term whether you use it or not.

A spot price is the price of a machine you may lose. A reserved price is the price of a term you must buy. Put either beside an on-demand figure and the lower number looks like a bargain, when it is a different product.

The tables on this site list on-demand prices for that reason. On 12 Nov 2026, on-demand B300 prices listed here ran from $6.60 to $18.12 per GPU-hour.

Choose by hours. If the GPU runs a few hours a day, or on no fixed pattern, rent on demand and look for a small billing unit. If the job can be interrupted and restarts from a checkpoint, spot can be worth it, as long as you count the work lost each time the machine is taken.

If the GPU will run most hours of most days for a month or more, price a term. Multiply the term rate by every hour in the term. Compare that total with the on-demand cost of the hours you would really use. A term that is a third cheaper per hour pays off only when you use more than two thirds of it.

Runcrate sells on-demand GPUs billed by the second on most models, and booting is never billed. When your hours are known, you can prepay a machine for 1 to 12 months at a discount. Runcrate can start a B300 now from $18.12 per GPU-hour.

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