Lightning AI
vs
Thunder Compute
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-minute billing, nothing charged while an instance is stopped
- Per-second GPU sandboxes, each its own Firecracker microVM
- MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex
- 100 GB persistent disk per GPU, no egress fees
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Lightning AI | Thunder Compute | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | $21.90 /mo 100 GB beyond free allowance · First 100 GB per GPU included | 54% cheaper on Lightning AI |
| Egress | Not publicly listed | Free and unlimited |
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 Thunder Compute offers 4. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Lightning AI | Thunder Compute | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
4 configs · 4 configs
|
$5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | $3.20 /GPU/hr On-demand · sold out | 41% cheaper on Thunder Compute |
|
A100
8 configs · 4 configs
|
$1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.09 /GPU/hr On-demand | 30% cheaper on Thunder Compute |
|
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 |
|
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 A6000
1 config
|
-- | $0.35 /GPU/hr On-demand | Thunder Compute only |
|
L40
4 configs
|
-- | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Thunder Compute only |
Lightning AI bills on-demand; Thunder Compute bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Lightning AI | Thunder Compute |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Thunder Compute |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only | -- |
| HIPAA | AWS and GCP clouds only | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | 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 | Thunder Compute |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2019 | 2024 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | -- |
| Example customers | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs | NYU Langone Health, MIT, ETH Zürich, UC Berkeley, Theseus, Conduit, InstaLILY |
| Website | lightning.ai | www.thundercompute.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Lightning AI and Thunder Compute against other cloud providers.
Our data for Lightning AI was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Thunder Compute on Oct. 28, 2026.