Buy or rent: purchase price against hourly rental
For every GPU with a retail median from three or more sellers: what the card costs to buy, what it costs to rent by the hour, and how many months of running it around the clock add up to the purchase price. Break-even counts the rental fee only — power, hosting, cooling, idle time and resale value are not in it, so a real payback is longer than the figure shown.
As of , across the 9 GPUs with both figures, the purchase price equals 7.2 to 14 months of continuous rental at the median on-demand rate (median 11 months), and at least 10 months at the cheapest listed rate.
| GPU | Buy, median (sellers) | Rent, cheapest / GPU-hour | Rent, median / GPU-hour | Months to break even, at cheapest | At median | Buy, $ per GB VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H200 | $36,150 8 sellers | $2.60 GMI Cloud · from | $4.54 16 providers | 19 | 11 | $256 |
| NVIDIA H100 PCIe | $31,447.50 8 sellers | $1.99 RunPod · Community Cloud | $3.07 6 providers | 22 | 14 | $393 |
| NVIDIA H100 SXM | $29,950 3 sellers | $1.79 Cudo Compute · no-kristiansand-1, GPU only | $3.90 18 providers | 23 | 11 | $374 |
| NVIDIA A100 80GB | $14,599.50 8 sellers | $0.75 Vast.ai · floor | $2.60 15 providers | 27 | 7.7 | $182 |
| NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | $12,554.02 8 sellers | $1.69 RunPod · Community Cloud | $1.89 7 providers | 10 | 9.1 | $131 |
| NVIDIA L40S | $8,900 7 sellers | $0.79 RunPod · Community Cloud | $1.69 12 providers | 15 | 7.2 | $185 |
| NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada | $7,299 8 sellers | $0.61 Vast.ai · floor | $0.84 4 providers | 16 | 12 | $152 |
| NVIDIA RTX 5090 | $4,434 11 sellers | $0.40 Vast.ai · floor | $0.69 2 providers | 15 | 8.8 | $139 |
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 | $2,732.40 7 sellers | $0.32 Vast.ai · floor | $0.34 2 providers | 12 | 11 | $114 |
Card by card
- NVIDIA H200: buying costs a median $36,150 across 8 sellers; renting costs from $2.60 per GPU-hour on GMI Cloud (from) and a median $4.54 across 16 providers — the purchase price equals about 11 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 19 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA H100 PCIe: buying costs a median $31,447.50 across 8 sellers; renting costs from $1.99 per GPU-hour on RunPod (Community Cloud) and a median $3.07 across 6 providers — the purchase price equals about 14 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 22 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA H100 SXM: buying costs a median $29,950 across 3 sellers; renting costs from $1.79 per GPU-hour on Cudo Compute (no-kristiansand-1, GPU only) and a median $3.90 across 18 providers — the purchase price equals about 11 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 23 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA A100 80GB: buying costs a median $14,599.50 across 8 sellers; renting costs from $0.75 per GPU-hour on Vast.ai (floor) and a median $2.60 across 15 providers — the purchase price equals about 7.7 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 27 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell: buying costs a median $12,554.02 across 8 sellers; renting costs from $1.69 per GPU-hour on RunPod (Community Cloud) and a median $1.89 across 7 providers — the purchase price equals about 9.1 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 10 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA L40S: buying costs a median $8,900 across 7 sellers; renting costs from $0.79 per GPU-hour on RunPod (Community Cloud) and a median $1.69 across 12 providers — the purchase price equals about 7.2 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 15 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada: buying costs a median $7,299 across 8 sellers; renting costs from $0.61 per GPU-hour on Vast.ai (floor) and a median $0.84 across 4 providers — the purchase price equals about 12 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 16 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA RTX 5090: buying costs a median $4,434 across 11 sellers; renting costs from $0.40 per GPU-hour on Vast.ai (floor) and a median $0.69 across 2 providers — the purchase price equals about 8.8 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 15 at the cheapest.
- NVIDIA RTX 4090: buying costs a median $2,732.40 across 7 sellers; renting costs from $0.32 per GPU-hour on Vast.ai (floor) and a median $0.34 across 2 providers — the purchase price equals about 11 months of continuous rental at the median rate, 12 at the cheapest.
How to read it
Months to break even = retail median ÷ (rental rate × 730 hours). It answers one question only: at what utilization the rental fee alone exceeds the purchase price. A card that runs a few hours a day never gets there; a card that trains around the clock gets there within the year at median rates. Owning also means power (an H100 draws 350–700 W), a host system, cooling, and the card’s resale value at the end — none of which is in the table. Renting also means the provider’s availability and the tier you actually get: the cheapest rate is usually a community tier, a GPU-only line item or a marketplace floor, each tagged above.
Retail medians come from current listings on tracked sources, each linked on the GPU’s page; a card appears here only with three or more sellers. Rental rates are listed on-demand prices per GPU-hour; see cheapest by provider type for the split.
Data updated: