Google Cloud
vs
Lightning AI
What's good about each
- 40+ regions across 26 countries
- BigQuery, GKE and Gemini models on Vertex AI
- TPUs, plus Nvidia T4 up to 8x B200 nodes
- Automatic sustained use discounts on N1 and N2 VMs
- Billed by the second, interruptible machines 50-80% off
- Studios move between its own cloud, AWS, GCP, Lambda and Nebius
- Owned H100, B200 and GB300 fleet in US datacenters
- Bring your own AWS or GCP account and spend cloud credits
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Google Cloud | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.79 /mo 2 vCPU (shared-core), 1 GB RAM (e2-micro) | -- Not listed | |
| Medium VM | $94.20 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (E2 custom) | -- Not listed | |
| Large VM | $220.44 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (n4-highcpu-8) | -- Not listed | |
| Block storage | $7.89 /mo 100 GB (Hyperdisk Balanced) | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | 21% cheaper on Google Cloud |
| Object storage | $42.13 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | $94.22 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD (Cloud SQL Enterprise) | -- Not listed | |
| Redis | $22.90 /mo 1.4 GB (Memorystore for Valkey, shared-core-nano) | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $29.16 /mo Passthrough Network Load Balancer | -- Not listed | |
| Serverless | $44.66 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (Cloud Run functions, 0.333 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 1 GB / mo (Compute Engine), 100 GB / mo (Cloud Storage) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | $120.00 /TB $0.12 / GB (Premium network) | Not publicly listed |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Google Cloud offers 10 GPU models, while Lightning AI offers 8. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Google Cloud | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
15 configs · 4 configs
|
$11.07 /GPU/hr On-demand | $5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | 51% cheaper on Lightning AI |
|
B200
3 configs · 1 config
|
$4.18 /GPU/hr Spot | $9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | Different terms |
|
RTX PRO 6000
16 configs · 4 configs
|
$4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.63 /GPU/hr On-demand | Within 5% |
|
H200
3 configs · 4 configs
|
$4.66 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | $4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | Different terms |
|
A100
36 configs · 8 configs
|
$3.72 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | 58% cheaper on Lightning AI |
|
L4
32 configs · 4 configs
|
$0.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | 11% cheaper on Google Cloud |
|
T4
48 configs · 2 configs
|
$0.42 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | 23% cheaper on Google Cloud |
|
V100
36 configs
|
$1.34 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | -- | Google Cloud only |
|
P100
36 configs
|
$0.60 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Google Cloud only |
|
L40S
3 configs
|
-- | $2.97 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
Google Cloud bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 or 36 months); Lightning AI bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Google Cloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | -- |
| HIPAA | Yes | AWS and GCP clouds only |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Yes | -- |
| FedRAMP | High | -- |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Google Cloud | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 40 | -- |
| Example customers | Shopify, Wayfair, Etsy, The Home Depot, Unilever, Lloyds Banking Group | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs |
| Website | cloud.google.com | lightning.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Google Cloud and Lightning AI against other cloud providers.
Our data for Google Cloud was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Lightning AI on Oct. 28, 2026.