A100 vs L40S

The A100 features 80GB HBM2e for training, while the L40S offers 48GB GDDR6 for inference. Choose A100 for training workloads, L40S for inference workloads.

Jump to: Specs Pricing Offers Similar GPUs

Overview

Nvidia A100

The Nvidia A100 is a data center GPU on the Ampere architecture, released Q2 2020, with 80 GB HBM2e and 1,935 GB/s memory bandwidth on the PCIe variant.

High Performance Datacenter

Nvidia L40S

The Nvidia L40S is a data center GPU on the Ada Lovelace architecture, released Q3 2023, with 48 GB GDDR6 and 864 GB/s memory bandwidth.

High Performance Datacenter

Memory per GPU

1.7x more on A100

A100

80 GB HBM2e 40 GB on SXM, PCIe

L40S

48 GB GDDR6

Memory bandwidth

2.2x higher on A100

A100

1,935 GB/s 2,039 GB/s on SXM 1,555 GB/s on SXM, PCIe

L40S

864 GB/s

GPU interconnect

A100

NVLink 600 GB/s

L40S

PCIe only

Peak performance (FP16)

1.2x higher on L40S

A100

312 TFLOPS

L40S

362.1 TFLOPS

Vendor peak figures, dense and per GPU. Not measured throughput.

FP16 per watt

Within 5%

A100

1.04 TFLOPS/W

L40S

1.03 TFLOPS/W

Board power

1.2x higher on L40S

A100

300 W

L40S

350 W

Precision support

A100

FP16 BF16 TF32 FP32 FP64 INT4 INT8

L40S

FP8 FP16 BF16 TF32 FP32 INT4 INT8

Highlighted formats are supported by only one of the two.

Architecture

A100

Ampere

L40S

Ada Lovelace

Released

3 years newer on L40S

A100

Q2 2020

L40S

Q3 2023

Figures are for each model's headline configuration. Where a form factor carries a different number, it is named under the figure.

Source: A100 datasheet and L40S datasheet.

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Price comparison

Cheapest on-demand

1.1x higher on A100

A100

$0.61 / GPU / hr

L40S

$0.55 / GPU / hr

Typical rate

1.3x higher on A100

A100

$1.79 / GPU / hr

L40S

$1.33 / GPU / hr

Median across providers, one vote each, so a large catalog does not outweigh a small one.

Spot floor

3x higher on L40S

A100

$0.13 / GPU / hr

L40S

$0.40 / GPU / hr

Providers listing it

9 more on A100

A100

L40S

Price, last 90 days

A100

−2%

L40S

−3%

Change in the market-wide median, which moves when providers reprice and when cheaper or more expensive listings enter the market.

Heads up: A provider's own page may quote a different figure, for example on tax, region or a promotion. A monthly-only plan shows a derived hourly rate. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.

Offers and availability

How this list works

Order

Each provider appears once per GPU. We pick the one configuration that speaks for that provider, and rank on it in this order:

Availability: in stock, then waitlist, then not reported, then out of stock. A price you can act on outranks a cheaper one you cannot.
Billing type: on-demand first, then reserved, then spot, then quote-only. On-demand leads because it is the only rate you can hold without committing to anything.
Price: the lowest per-GPU hourly rate the provider lists, converted to USD.

The configuration we pick is chosen the same way, availability before billing before price. The rest of that provider's configurations are on the GPU's own page.

Ties sort alphabetically. Reserved rates are not separated by term length, so a three-year commitment can sit above a one-month one: the label beneath each price says which you are looking at. Providers who publish no rate are listed last within their group.

Transparency and funding

Ads and sponsors: Paid placements sit at the top of the list and are always labeled as sponsored content. Sponsorship never influences the organic ranking itself.
Affiliates: Affiliate links are marked. We may earn a commission if you click them, but commissions never affect the order.
Prices: Shown in USD, converted at daily reference rates where a provider publishes in another currency. A month means 720 hours. How we estimate costs.