Lightning AI
vs
Salad
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
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Lightning AI | Salad | 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 Salad offers 35. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Lightning AI | Salad | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
4 configs
|
$5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
B200
1 config
|
$9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
4 configs
|
$4.63 /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 |
|
RTX 5090
4 configs
|
-- | $0.25 /GPU/hr Spot | Salad only |
|
RTX 4090
4 configs
|
-- | $0.16 /GPU/hr Spot | Salad only |
|
RTX 3090
4 configs
|
-- | $0.09 /GPU/hr Spot | Salad only |
|
RTX 5060 Ti
8 configs
|
-- | $0.07 /GPU/hr Spot | Salad only |
|
RTX 3060
8 configs
|
-- | $0.03 /GPU/hr Spot | Salad only |
Lightning AI bills on-demand; Salad bills on-demand and spot. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Lightning AI | Salad |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Salad |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only | Type I, platform 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 | Salad |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2019 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | -- |
| Example customers | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs | Discord, Stability AI, Blend, undetectable.ai, Civitai |
| Website | lightning.ai | salad.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Lightning AI and Salad against other cloud providers.
Our data for Lightning AI was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Salad on Oct. 28, 2026.