# RunPod vs Vast.ai

| Attribute | RunPod | Vast.ai |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 62.7 (64% (medium)) | 64.9 (25% (low)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Runpod offers on-demand GPU infrastructure for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. It provides both transient serverless compute and persistent instances for model training and development, eliminating infrastructure management requirements and charging only for time actively used. It is indexed under GPU Cloud.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"What is RunPod?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"RunPod is a paid product; published pricing starts at $0.40. It is sold across 2 plans (T4 GPU and A100 80GB GPU). Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"How much does RunPod cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"RunPod supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"What platforms does RunPod support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for RunPod, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"Can RunPod be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 18 integrations for RunPod, including GitHub, Docker Hub, HuggingFace, PyTorch, TensorFlow, NVIDIA CUDA, Jupyter and VS Code, plus 10 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"What does RunPod integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for RunPod. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as RunPod not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/security-feature-priority-ai-hosting","question":"What security certifications does RunPod have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"RunPod is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/serverless-gpu-pricing","question":"Where is RunPod available?","confidence":0.5}]` | `[{"answer":"A cloud marketplace platform that enables on-demand rental of GPUs from various providers for AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing tasks, with hourly pay-as-you-go pricing. It is indexed under GPU Cloud.","source":"https://vast.ai/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-rent-a-gpu-in-the-cloud-live-pricing-guide","question":"What is Vast.ai?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Vast.ai supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://vast.ai/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-rent-a-gpu-in-the-cloud-live-pricing-guide","question":"What platforms does Vast.ai support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Vast.ai, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://vast.ai/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-rent-a-gpu-in-the-cloud-live-pricing-guide","question":"Can Vast.ai be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Vast.ai. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Vast.ai not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://vast.ai/article/Navigating-Data-Center-Compliance","question":"What security certifications does Vast.ai have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Vast.ai is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://vast.ai/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-rent-a-gpu-in-the-cloud-live-pricing-guide","question":"Where is Vast.ai available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud GPU provider offering both serverless and on-demand compute resources for AI workloads, with pay-per-second or hourly billing, global availability across 30+ regions, and no long-term commitments. | A platform connecting users with distributed GPU providers across 40+ data centers. Offers on-demand, interruptible, and reserved compute with per-second billing and no long-term contracts. |
| features.capabilities | `{"soc2":true,"multi_region":true,"soc2_type_ii":true,"compute_model":"serverless_per_token","pricing_model":"on-demand-published","amd_gpu_support":false,"deployment_model":"serverless","max_cluster_scale":"multi-node-cluster","kubernetes_support":true,"per_second_billing":true,"spot_preemptible_pricing":true,"reserved_capacity_contracts":true,"openai_compatible_rest_api_schema":true,"bring_your_own_weights_byow_hosting":true,"hipaa_baa_compliance_for_medical_inference":true,"multimodal_vision_and_audio_in_out_support":true}` | `{"soc2":true,"interconnect":"infiniband","multi_region":true,"pricing_model":"marketplace-bid","amd_gpu_support":true,"deployment_model":"marketplace","max_cluster_scale":"multi-node-cluster","per_second_billing":true,"spot_preemptible_pricing":true,"reserved_capacity_contracts":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Docker Hub"},{"name":"HuggingFace"},{"name":"PyTorch"},{"name":"TensorFlow"},{"name":"NVIDIA CUDA"},{"name":"Jupyter"},{"name":"VS Code"},{"name":"Whisper"},{"name":"Stable Diffusion"},{"name":"YOLOv5"},{"name":"DreamBooth"},{"name":"LLaMA"},{"name":"OpenAI Python SDK"},{"name":"Bazel"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Grafana","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"ELK Stack","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"}]` | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Serverless GPU","description":"Pay-per-second serverless compute with automatic scaling from zero to 1,000+ requests per second","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Cloud GPUs (On-Demand)","description":"Hourly pay-as-you-go GPU instances; available as Reserved (guaranteed) or Spot (interruptible, lower cost)","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","description":"Custom agreements with dedicated support and 99.99% uptime SLA","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Usage-based pricing by the second or hour; no minimum commitments or long-term contracts","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/cloud-gpu-pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-12T16:12:32.691Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"On-Demand","summary":"Market-based pricing with per-second billing","features":["Guaranteed uptime","Per-second billing","No interruptions","Spin up/down anytime"],"description":"Guaranteed uptime for production workloads with per-second billing","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Interruptible","summary":"50%+ discount for preemptible instances","features":["50%+ cheaper than on-demand","Preemptible — may be reclaimed","Ideal for fault-tolerant workloads","Checkpoint and resume easily"],"description":"Preemptible capacity at 50% discount for fault-tolerant batch workloads","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Reserved","summary":"Up to 50% discount with 1-6 month commitment","features":["Up to 50% discount","1, 3, or 6 month terms","Guaranteed capacity","Volume discounts available"],"description":"Long-term capacity reservations with up to 50% discount","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Market-based pricing starting from $5. Three tiers: on-demand (per-second billing), interruptible (50%+ discount), and reserved (up to 50% discount).","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://vast.ai/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-12T16:08:04.355Z","billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | no | no |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | unknown | unknown |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.4,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | - |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://www.runpod.io/articles/guides/secure-ai-deployments-soc2-compliance | https://vast.ai/compliance |

## Capabilities (GPU Cloud)

| Capability | RunPod | Vast.ai |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Deployment model | Serverless | Marketplace |
| Interconnect | - | Infiniband |
| Max cluster scale | Multi node cluster | Multi node cluster |
| Kubernetes support | ✓ | - |
| Slurm support | - | - |
| Spot preemptible pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per second billing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reserved capacity contracts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Amd GPU support | ✗ | ✓ |
| SOC2 | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi region | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | On demand published | Marketplace bid |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:13:23.274Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*