Lantern WorksLambda vs RunPod: GPU rental prices compared
Summary
Lambda cheaper in 0 of 4, RunPod in 3, ties 1. (On-demand: Lambda 0, RunPod 3, ties 1)
Some links are referral links; Lantern Works may earn credit. Affiliate status is not a ranking factor.
On-demand
| GPU | VRAM | Lambda $/GPU-hr | RunPod $/GPU-hr | Diff (vs dearer) | Since 2026-10-28 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A100 SXM | 80 GB | $2.79 (sold as 8-GPU only; server $22.32/hr) (On-demand instance (8x GPU)) · Direct link “NVIDIA A100 SXM 80 GB 240 1800 GiB 19.5 TiB SSD $2.79” | $1.79 (On-demand (Secure Cloud)) · Referral link“On-demand A100 SXM cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud…”“On-demand A100 SXM cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud $1.39/hr, Secure Cloud $1.79/hr.” | $1.00 (36%) | Lambda: no change RunPod: no change | RunPod |
| H100 PCIe | 80 GB | $3.29 (On-demand instance (1x GPU)) · Direct link “NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80 GB 26 225 GiB 1 TiB SSD $3.29” | $2.89 (On-demand (Secure Cloud)) · Referral link“On-demand H100 PCIe cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud…”“On-demand H100 PCIe cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud $1.99/hr, Secure Cloud $2.89/hr.” | $0.40 (12%) | Lambda: no change RunPod: no change | RunPod |
| H100 SXM | 80 GB | $3.99 (sold as 8-GPU only; server $31.92/hr) (On-demand instance (8x GPU)) · Direct link “NVIDIA H100 SXM 80 GB 208 1800 GiB 22 TiB SSD $3.99” | $3.99 (On-demand (Secure Cloud)) · Referral link“On-demand H100 SXM cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud…”“On-demand H100 SXM cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud $2.69/hr, Secure Cloud $3.99/hr.” | $0.00 (0%) | Lambda: no change RunPod: no change | tie |
| RTX A6000 | 48 GB | $1.09 (On-demand instance (1x GPU)) · Direct link “NVIDIA A6000 48 GB 14 100 GiB 512 GiB SSD $1.09” | $0.59 (On-demand (Secure Cloud)) · Referral link“On-demand RTX A6000 cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud…”“On-demand RTX A6000 cloud GPU rental on Runpod. Community Cloud $0.33/hr, Secure Cloud $0.59/hr.” | $0.50 (46%) | Lambda: no change RunPod: no change | RunPod |
GPUs only one vendor prices
Lambda: A10, A100 PCIe, B200, GH200, Quadro RTX 6000, V100
RunPod: A100 PCIe, H200, L40, L40S, RTX 3090, RTX 4090, RTX 5090, RTX A5000
Billing & extras
Lambda
Billing granularity: not stated in feed
egress: not published / not verified
storage: not published / not verified
interruption: On-demand self-serve instances; price per GPU/hr plus sales tax. (source)
RunPod
Billing granularity: not stated in feed
egress: not published / not verified
storage: Container disk $0.10/GB/mo; volume disk $0.10/GB/mo running, $0.20/GB/mo idle; network storage $0.07/GB/mo under 1 TB, $0.05/GB/mo over 1 TB. (source)
interruption: Listed rates are on-demand Pod prices (Secure Cloud and Community Cloud). (source)
Read before comparing
Rankings are the cheapest among tracked providers on our check date, not across the whole market. Vendors we don't track may cost less.
GPU-hours vs wall-clock time
Prices are per GPU-hour: one GPU for one hour. Four GPUs for 10 wall-clock hours is 40 GPU-hours. Per-second billing (serverless) charges only while your code runs; hourly pods bill from start to stop, idle time included; monthly servers bill a flat price whatever you use. A faster GPU can finish the same job in fewer GPU-hours, so the lowest hourly rate isn't always the lowest cost per job.
Hardware differences
The same GPU name can mean different hardware. SXM modules link GPUs over NVLink and run at higher power limits than PCIe cards, so an H100 SXM is usually faster than an H100 PCIe, especially for multi-GPU training. Interconnect between GPUs and nodes (NVLink, InfiniBand, plain Ethernet) is rarely listed on pricing pages; treat it as unknown unless the vendor states it. VRAM decides which models fit at all. Hardware as listed: A100 SXM 80 GB (SXM); H100 PCIe 80 GB (PCIe); H100 SXM 80 GB (SXM); RTX A6000 48 GB (not stated).
Egress and storage extras
Totals on this page exclude these. Each cell cites the vendor page it came from; "Not published" means the vendor doesn't publish it there.
| Vendor | Egress | Storage | Interruption / billing terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lambda | Not published: Not verified in this pass. (checked 2026-10-27) | Not published: Not verified in this pass. (checked 2026-10-27) | On-demand self-serve instances; price per GPU/hr plus sales tax. (source, 2026-10-27) |
| RunPod | Not published: Not published on the pricing page. (checked 2026-10-27) | Container disk $0.10/GB/mo; volume disk $0.10/GB/mo running, $0.20/GB/mo idle; network storage $0.07/GB/mo under 1 TB, $0.05/GB/mo over 1 TB. (source, 2026-10-27) | Listed rates are on-demand Pod prices (Secure Cloud and Community Cloud). (source, 2026-10-27) |
Interruptible vs on-demand
Interruptible (preemptible or spot) capacity can be stopped by the vendor mid-job and is usually cheaper; on-demand runs until you stop it. Every rate listed here is on-demand; none is marked interruptible by its vendor.
FAQ
Is Lambda or RunPod cheaper for A100 SXM (On-demand)?
RunPod is cheaper in our tracked rates: Lambda $2.79 vs RunPod $1.79 per GPU-hour.
Is Lambda or RunPod cheaper for H100 PCIe (On-demand)?
RunPod is cheaper in our tracked rates: Lambda $3.29 vs RunPod $2.89 per GPU-hour.
Is Lambda or RunPod cheaper for H100 SXM (On-demand)?
Tie at $3.99: Lambda $3.99 vs RunPod $3.99 per GPU-hour.
Are egress and storage included?
No. Comparisons are compute-only; totals exclude storage, egress, extra vCPU and taxes. See Billing & extras.
More
GPU price hub · price changes · Data: gpu-prices.json · gpu-price-changes.json (RSS) · history.json