Lightning AI
vs
Nova Cloud
What's good about each
- 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
- Per-second billing with no contracts or minimum spend
- Owned-and-operated datacenters in Western Canada
- Reserved 1, 3, and 6 month terms for additional discounts
- 5 Gb/s network bandwidth with all ports available
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Lightning AI | Nova Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | Not publicly listed | -- Not 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
Lightning AI offers 8 GPU models, while Nova Cloud offers 2. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Lightning AI | Nova Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
RTX PRO 6000
4 configs · 20 configs
|
$4.63 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.74 /GPU/hr On-demand | 62% cheaper on Nova Cloud |
|
H100
4 configs
|
$5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
B200
1 config
|
$9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
H200
4 configs
|
$4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
A100
8 configs
|
$1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
L40S
3 configs
|
$2.97 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
L4
4 configs
|
$0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
T4
2 configs
|
$0.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
RTX 5090
20 configs
|
-- | $0.33 /GPU/hr Spot | Nova Cloud only |
Lightning AI bills on-demand; Nova Cloud bills on-demand, spot and reserved (1, 3 or 6 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Lightning AI | Nova Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage | ||
| GPU-powered Servers | ||
| Managed Containers | ||
| Python Notebooks |
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Lightning AI | Nova Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only | -- |
| HIPAA | AWS and GCP clouds only | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | -- |
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 | Lightning AI | Nova Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2019 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | USA | Canada |
| Locations | -- | 1 |
| Example customers | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs | -- |
| Website | lightning.ai | nova-cloud.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Lightning AI and Nova Cloud against other cloud providers.
Our data for Lightning AI was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Nova Cloud on Oct. 28, 2026.