# RunPod vs Lambda

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/runpod-vs-lambda/

Every value below is read from RunPod's and Lambda's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | RunPod | Lambda |
| --- | --- | --- |
| H100 SXM, per GPU-hour | $3.49 per hour for H100 SXM 80GB, single card. The PCIe variant is $2.89 and H100 NVL is $3.19. | $4.29 per GPU-hour for H100 SXM 80GB on a single-GPU instance, falling to $3.99 on an 8-GPU node. The PCIe variant is $3.29. |
| Cheapest GPU, per hour | $0.27 per hour for an RTX A5000 with 24GB. RTX 3090 is $0.50, RTX 4090 $0.74, L40S $1.09. | $0.69 per GPU-hour for a Quadro RTX 6000 with 24GB; the V100 is $0.79 and the A6000 $1.09. |
| Largest GPU offered | 288GB per GPU on B300; B200 at 180GB is $6.79 an hour and H200 at 141GB is $4.59. | 180GB per GPU on B200 SXM6, from $6.69 per GPU-hour on an 8-GPU node to $6.99 on a single GPU. |
| Billing granularity | Per second, with per-hour rates shown for comparison. Clusters can be started with no commitment and scaled to 64 GPUs. | By the minute. |

## Where they differ

### H100 SXM, per GPU-hour

- RunPod: $3.49 per hour for H100 SXM 80GB, single card. The PCIe variant is $2.89 and H100 NVL is $3.19. ([source](https://www.runpod.io/pricing))
- Lambda: $4.29 per GPU-hour for H100 SXM 80GB on a single-GPU instance, falling to $3.99 on an 8-GPU node. The PCIe variant is $3.29. ([source](https://lambda.ai/service/gpu-cloud))

### Cheapest GPU, per hour

- RunPod: $0.27 per hour for an RTX A5000 with 24GB. RTX 3090 is $0.50, RTX 4090 $0.74, L40S $1.09. ([source](https://www.runpod.io/pricing))
- Lambda: $0.69 per GPU-hour for a Quadro RTX 6000 with 24GB; the V100 is $0.79 and the A6000 $1.09. ([source](https://lambda.ai/service/gpu-cloud))

### Largest GPU offered

- RunPod: 288GB per GPU on B300; B200 at 180GB is $6.79 an hour and H200 at 141GB is $4.59. ([source](https://www.runpod.io/pricing))
- Lambda: 180GB per GPU on B200 SXM6, from $6.69 per GPU-hour on an 8-GPU node to $6.99 on a single GPU. ([source](https://lambda.ai/service/gpu-cloud))

### Billing granularity

- RunPod: Per second, with per-hour rates shown for comparison. Clusters can be started with no commitment and scaled to 64 GPUs. ([source](https://www.runpod.io/pricing))
- Lambda: By the minute. ([source](https://lambda.ai/service/gpu-cloud))

## Which should you choose?

Pick RunPod if Short experiments and bursty inference — per-second billing and a $0.27 entry card mean an idle hour costs nothing and a small job is genuinely small.

Pick Lambda if Renting exactly the instance shape you need — Lambda publishes 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x plans for the same card, so a single H100 is a real product rather than a fraction of a node.

Consider something else: RunPod — The catalogue mixes community and secure capacity, so the cheapest quoted rate is not always the tier a production workload should sit on.

Consider something else: Lambda — Its H100 SXM is the most expensive per GPU-hour in this set at $4.29 single-card, and there is no published reserved discount to bring it down.

## Documented by only one

- Egress over allowance: Lambda: Free. Lambda states transparent pricing with no egress fees.
- Storage price: RunPod: Persistent storage from $0.05 per GB per month, in standard and high-performance tiers.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose RunPod or Lambda?**

Pick RunPod if Short experiments and bursty inference — per-second billing and a $0.27 entry card mean an idle hour costs nothing and a small job is genuinely small.
Pick Lambda if Renting exactly the instance shape you need — Lambda publishes 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x plans for the same card, so a single H100 is a real product rather than a fraction of a node.