Google Cloud logo Vast.ai logo

Google Cloud vs Vast.ai

Google Cloud provides a full-featured cloud platform with managed services and TPU access, while Vast.ai focuses on affordable GPU rentals through its decentralized marketplace.

Jump to: What's good Pricing Services Company details Alternatives

What's good about...

Google Cloud logo Google Cloud

  • Extensive range of managed services with a focus on big data and machine learning
  • BigQuery and Google Kubernetes Engine are widely considered industry-leading solutions
  • 40+ data centers around the world

Vast.ai logo Vast.ai

  • Large pool of over 20,000 GPUs
  • Over 68 GPU types across 40+ data centers
  • Enterprise-grade security with SOC2 certification
  • Pre-built templates including PyTorch, CUDA, and TensorFlow

Price comparison

How do Google Cloud's prices compare against Vast.ai?

VM Small

Closest config to 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$20.49 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (E2 custom)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

VM Medium

Closest config to 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$90.15 / mo 4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (E2 custom)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

VM Large

Closest config to 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (dedicated preferred).
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$179.87 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (E2 custom)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Block Storage

Closest config to 100+ GB SSD, 3,000+ IOPS, 100+ MB/s throughput, no snapshots.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$4.10 / mo 100 GB
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Object Storage

Closest config to 1 TB stored, 100 GB in / 250 GB out, 1M GET, 100k PUT/POST.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$24.93 / mo 1 TB
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Load Balancer

Closest config to TCP, 1 node (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), 200+ Mbps, 1,000 conn/sec, 1 TB processed/mo.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$29.44 / mo
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Managed PostgreSQL

Closest config to 1 node, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50+ GB storage, 10 GB read / 5 GB write per month.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$93.60 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB storage
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Managed Redis®*

Closest config to 1 node, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 req/s, 1 KB avg request size.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$35.28 / mo 1 vCPU, 1.55 GiB RAM (Basic)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Serverless 25M Executions

Closest config to 25M invocations, 150ms execution time, 512 MB memory.
Google Cloud Google Cloud
$47.62 / mo 25M invocations, 2nd gen, 150 ms duration
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Free egress allowance

Google Cloud Google Cloud
Depends on service
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

1 TB of egress beyond allowance

Google Cloud Google Cloud
$120.00 $0.12 / GB (Premium network)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--

Vast.ai logo Vast.ai Pricing Details

Vast.ai operates as a global marketplace where pricing is billed per second and broken into three components:

  1. Active rental cost for the GPU, charged only when an instance is running.

  2. Storage cost for allocated disk space, which applies as long as the instance exists (even when stopped).

  3. Bandwidth costs for data transfer.

GPU Fleet Overview

Starting Price

Google Cloud Google Cloud
$0.13/hr
Vast.ai Vast.ai
$0.02/hr

Billing Options

Google Cloud Google Cloud
On-DemandSpotReserved (12mo)Reserved (36mo)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
On-DemandSpotReserved (6mo)

Available Models

Google Cloud offers 10 GPU models, while Vast.ai offers 53.

Google Cloud Google Cloud
H100(24) A100(36) H200(4) B200(4) RTX Pro 6000(16) V100(48) L4(32) T4(48) P100(36) P4(36)
Vast.ai Vast.ai
H100(29) A100(106) H200(66) B200(13) RTX Pro 6000(84) V100(10) RTX A6000(3) L4(12) RTX 4090(294) RTX 6000 Ada(22)
View all 53 GPUs

Heads up: We do our best to keep these prices accurate. However, cloud costs may fluctuate based on region, usage, and other factors not listed here. These are estimates based on common setups and are for informational purposes only. Always verify current rates with the provider before provisioning.

Which services do they offer

Here are some managed services that Google Cloud and Vast.ai offer:

Service Google Cloud Vast.ai
Analytics
Block Storage
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Container Registry
Crash Reporting
GPU-powered Servers
Load Balancer
Managed Containers
Managed Kubernetes
Managed MySQL
Managed PostgreSQL
Managed Redis®*
NoSQL Databases
Object Storage
Performance Monitoring
Push Notifications
Python Notebooks
Realtime Databases
Serverless Cron Jobs
Serverless Functions
Static Sites
User Authentication
Vector Databases
Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Company details

Website
Google Cloud Google Cloud
cloud.google.com
Vast.ai Vast.ai
vast.ai
Headquarters
Google Cloud Google Cloud
United States of America
Vast.ai Vast.ai
United States of America
Founded
Google Cloud Google Cloud
2008
Vast.ai Vast.ai
2018
Data Center Locations
Google Cloud Google Cloud
40
Vast.ai Vast.ai
--
Example Customers
Google Cloud Google Cloud
PayPal, GitLab, 20th Century Fox, Target, Scotiabank
Vast.ai Vast.ai
IBM, Brave, Speechify, Cognition, Bosch

Alternatives to consider

Compare Google Cloud and Vast.ai against other cloud providers.

View all comparisons

Our data for Google Cloud was last updated on June 5, 2026, and for Vast.ai on June 5, 2026.