The latest articles on DEV Community by Alex Chen (@qisuancloud). https://dev.to/qisuancloud https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4165462%2F7bfca20a-1852-4bb5-9450-d0c650e04c68.png https://dev.to/qisuancloud en Alex Chen Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:41:57 +0000 https://dev.to/qisuancloud/i-compared-5-gpu-clouds-for-llm-inference-in-2026-heres-what-i-found-4884 https://dev.to/qisuancloud/i-compared-5-gpu-clouds-for-llm-inference-in-2026-heres-what-i-found-4884 <h1> I Compared 5 GPU Clouds for LLM Inference in 2026 — Here's What I Found </h1> <p><em>Researched October 2026. Prices from public pricing pages and third-party trackers.</em></p> <p>Running LLMs in production gets expensive fast. I spent a week comparing GPU cloud providers to find the cheapest way to serve inference workloads. Here are the results.</p> <h2> The Contenders </h2> <p>I looked at five providers that offer on-demand GPU instances suitable for LLM inference:</p> <ol> <li> <strong>RunPod</strong> — community favorite, wide GPU selection</li> <li> <strong>Lambda Labs</strong> — straightforward pricing, good availability</li> <li> <strong>Vast.ai</strong> — marketplace model, often cheapest</li> <li> <strong>AWS</strong> — the default choice, premium pricing</li> <li> <strong>Google Cloud</strong> — strong TPUs, GPU pricing varies</li> </ol> <h2> Price Comparison (A100 80GB, per hour) </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Provider</th> <th>A100 80GB/hr</th> <th>Notes</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Vast.ai</td> <td>~$1.20</td> <td>Marketplace, prices fluctuate</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RunPod</td> <td>~$1.89</td> <td>Secure Cloud pricing</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lambda Labs</td> <td>~$1.50</td> <td>On-demand</td> </tr> <tr> <td>AWS (p4d)</td> <td>~$3.20</td> <td>On-demand, us-east-1</td> </tr> <tr> <td>GCP (a2-highgpu)</td> <td>~$2.90</td> <td>On-demand</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <p><em>Prices are approximate, researched October 2026. Always check current pricing.</em></p> <h2> What About RTX 4090? </h2> <p>For smaller models (7B-13B), a 4090 is often enough and much cheaper:</p> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Provider</th> <th>RTX 4090/hr</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Vast.ai</td> <td>~$0.35</td> </tr> <tr> <td>RunPod</td> <td>~$0.69</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <p>A 4090 can handle Llama 3 8B inference comfortably. If your model fits, don't overpay for an A100.</p> <h2> My Takeaways </h2> <ol> <li> <strong>Marketplace &gt; fixed pricing</strong> — Vast.ai is consistently 30-50% cheaper, but you trade reliability</li> <li> <strong>Match GPU to model size</strong> — Don't rent an H100 for a 7B model</li> <li> <strong>Spot/preemptible instances</strong> — Can cut costs another 50-70% if your workload tolerates interruptions</li> <li> <strong>Watch egress fees</strong> — Some providers charge heavily for data transfer out</li> </ol> <h2> What's Next </h2> <p>I'm building a free tool that recommends the cheapest GPU for your specific workload. Drop a comment with your use case and I'll share early access.</p> <p><em>What's your go-to GPU cloud? Am I missing a cheaper option?</em></p> ai gpu llm cloud