Lightning AI
vs
TensorDock
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
- Marketplace model with competitive pricing
- Pay-per-second billing with no minimum commitments
- No waitlists or quotas for GPU access
- Global coverage across 100+ locations
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Lightning AI | TensorDock | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | -- Not listed | $10.80 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB storage | |
| Medium VM | -- Not listed | $20.88 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 20 GB storage | |
| Large VM | -- Not listed | $41.04 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 20 GB storage | |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | $0.01 /mo 100 GB | 99% cheaper on TensorDock |
| 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 TensorDock offers 9. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Lightning AI | TensorDock | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
$5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | $2.36 /GPU/hr On-demand | 57% cheaper on TensorDock |
|
|
$1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.61 /GPU/hr On-demand | Within 5% |
|
|
$9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
|
$4.63 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
|
$4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
|
$2.97 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | Lightning AI only |
|
|
-- | $0.46 /GPU/hr On-demand | TensorDock only |
|
|
-- | $0.31 /GPU/hr On-demand | TensorDock only |
|
|
-- | $0.28 /GPU/hr On-demand | TensorDock only |
|
|
-- | $0.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | TensorDock only |
Lightning AI bills on-demand; TensorDock bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Lightning AI | TensorDock |
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage | ||
| GPU-powered Servers | ||
| Managed Containers | ||
| Python Notebooks | ||
| Virtual Private Server (VPS) |
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Lightning AI | TensorDock |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | TensorDock |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2019 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | -- |
| Example customers | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs | Florida State University, Creavite, airgpu, ELBO |
| Website | lightning.ai | www.tensordock.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Lightning AI and TensorDock against other cloud providers.
Our data for Lightning AI was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for TensorDock on Oct. 15, 2026.