Google Cloud vs Lightning AI
As of , Lightning AI lists the lower on-demand rate on 3 of the 5 GPUs both offer on-demand; Google Cloud wins on 2. On the priciest shared card both list on-demand, NVIDIA H200: Google Cloud $9.31 (us-west1) vs Lightning AI $4.50 per GPU-hour on-demand — Lightning AI is $4.81 (52%) cheaper.
On-demand, per GPU-hour
| GPU |  Google Cloud |  Lightning AI | Difference | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H200 median $4.54 · 56 providers · lowest Beam $2.09 from | $9.31 us-west1 · GPU only captured Deploy ↗ | $4.50 captured Deploy ↗ | $4.81 (52%) | Lightning AI |
| NVIDIA A100 80GB median $1.99 · 63 providers · lowest CloudRift $1.05 | $3.93 us-central1 · GPU only captured Deploy ↗ | $1.85 captured Deploy ↗ | $2.08 (53%) | Lightning AI |
| NVIDIA A100 40GB median $1.98 · 22 providers · lowest CloudGPU $0.63 | $2.93 us-central1 · GPU only captured Deploy ↗ | $2.19 captured Deploy ↗ | $0.74 (25%) | Lightning AI |
| NVIDIA L4 median $0.80 · 24 providers · lowest Hikube $0.27 GPU only | $0.56 us-east4 · GPU only captured Deploy ↗ | $0.79 captured Deploy ↗ | $0.23 (29%) | Google Cloud |
| NVIDIA T4 median $0.57 · 18 providers · lowest immers.cloud $0.24 | $0.35 us-east5 · GPU only captured Deploy ↗ | $0.55 captured Deploy ↗ | $0.20 (36%) | Google Cloud |
Spot / interruptible, per GPU-hour
| GPU | Google Cloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H200 | $5.54 captured | — |
| NVIDIA A100 80GB | $0.40 captured | — |
| NVIDIA A100 40GB | $0.30 captured | — |
How this is compared
Cloud GPU rental prices of Google Cloud and Lightning AI, compared per GPU-hour on the GPUs both list. Where a provider has several tiers or regions, its cheapest on-demand rate is used and labelled. Community capacity (RunPod Community Cloud) and marketplace floors are shown only where a provider has nothing else, and never decide which is cheaper.
GPU by GPU
- NVIDIA H200: Google Cloud $9.31 (us-west1) vs Lightning AI $4.50 per GPU-hour on-demand — Lightning AI is $4.81 (52%) cheaper.
- NVIDIA A100 80GB: Google Cloud $3.93 (us-central1) vs Lightning AI $1.85 per GPU-hour on-demand — Lightning AI is $2.08 (53%) cheaper.
- NVIDIA A100 40GB: Google Cloud $2.93 (us-central1) vs Lightning AI $2.19 per GPU-hour on-demand — Lightning AI is $0.74 (25%) cheaper.
- NVIDIA L4: Google Cloud $0.56 (us-east4) vs Lightning AI $0.79 per GPU-hour on-demand — Google Cloud is $0.23 (29%) cheaper.
- NVIDIA T4: Google Cloud $0.35 (us-east5) vs Lightning AI $0.55 per GPU-hour on-demand — Google Cloud is $0.20 (36%) cheaper.
Not compared: GPUs only one of the two lists, reserved/committed tiers, and anything either provider prices only on request. See each provider's page for its full list.
Data updated: