7 Cheaper Alternatives to Lambda Labs for Affordable GPU Cloud (RunPod, Crusoe & More)

Why shop for a Lambda Labs alternative?

Lambda Labs helped many teams start with GPUs, but its on-demand A100 40 GB now lists at $1.29 per hour. That is fine for short jobs, yet it adds up fast once you fine-tune large models or serve live traffic. The good news: several newer clouds undercut Lambda by 10–60 percent while still giving you SSH access, pre-built images, and hourly billing. Below are the seven cheapest options today.

Quick comparison of on-demand A100 prices

• Thunder Compute: $0.57/hr (40 GB)

• RunPod: $1.19/hr (80 GB Community Cloud)

• FluidStack: $1.49/hr (40 GB)

• Vast.ai: $1.27/hr (40 GB SXM4 median)

• Crusoe Cloud: $1.65/hr (80 GB PCIe)

• CoreWeave: $2.39/hr (40 GB)

• Paperspace: $3.09/hr (40 GB)

1. Thunder Compute

• Price: $0.57/hr for an A100 40 GB.

• Why it is cheaper: GPU-over-TCP virtualization lets Thunder optimize GPU capacity from hyperscalers and pass on savings.

• Account hoops: Email signup and credit card, no wait-list.

• Nice extras: $20 recurring monthly credit for indie users, one-click VS Code extension.

• Start now: thundercompute.com

• More details: Full 2025 price breakdown in their blog post, “Cheapest Cloud GPU Providers in 2025.”

Best for: Solo researchers and startups that need reliability at the lowest price.

2. Crusoe Cloud

• Price: $1.65/hr for an A100 80 GB PCIe; $1.45/hr for 40 GB.

• Why it is cheaper: Runs data centers on stranded natural-gas power that costs less.

• Account hoops: Join a short wait-list if inventory is tight.

• Nice extras: 99.98 percent uptime and transparent ESG reporting.

Best for: Production inference where uptime matters more than the absolute lowest price.

3. CoreWeave

• Price: About $2.39/hr for an A100 40 GB on-demand.

• Why it is cheaper: Custom data-center fabric and no general-purpose services.

• Account hoops: Must request access; approval can take a few business days.

• Nice extras: InfiniBand clusters and H100s in the same project.

Best for: Teams that need multi-GPU A100 or H100 nodes with fast NVLink.

4. RunPod

• Price: $1.19/hr for an A100 80 GB in Community Cloud.

• Why it is cheaper: Peer marketplace plus spot-style Community tier.

• Account hoops: Simple signup; Secure Cloud costs a bit more.

• Nice extras: Serverless endpoints and auto-resume checkpoints.

Best for: Quick experiments and low-traffic inference APIs.

5. Vast.ai

• Price: Median $1.27/hr for an A100 40 GB SXM4; listings dip as low as $0.82/hr for PCIe cards. vast.ai

• Why it is cheaper: Crowdsourced GPUs with bid pricing.

• Account hoops: None, but hosts’ reliability varies, so test before big runs.

• Nice extras: Pay-by-the-second billing and automatic spot-like restarts.

Best for: Cost-sensitive fine-tuning where you can checkpoint often.

6. FluidStack

• Price: $1.49/hr for an A100 40 GB.

• Why it is cheaper: Sells excess capacity from boutique data centers.

• Account hoops: Instant account creation; request larger clusters via form.

• Nice extras: API for automatic scale-up and high A100 inventory (≈2,500 GPUs).

Best for: Running many parallel A100s without going through enterprise sales.

7. Paperspace (DigitalOcean)

• Price: $3.09/hr for an A100 40 GB.

• Why it is cheaper than the hyperscalers: Lean feature set and data-center footprint limited to US + EU.

• Account hoops: Credit-card signup; tougher fraud checks than others.

• Nice extras: Free Jupyter notebooks and a rich web console.

Best for: Users who want a polished UI and do not mind paying a small premium.

How to pick the right alternative

1. Check inventory size: If you need more than eight A100s, Thunder Compute, FluidStack, and CoreWeave usually have the deepest pools.

2. Decide on reliability: Vast.ai and RunPod Community give the lowest sticker price, but nodes may disappear mid-run. Use tools like torch.save to checkpoint every few hours.

3. Mind network egress: All seven charge extra to move data out. Compress model checkpoints or push them to S3-compatible buckets in the same region.

4. Watch spot and reserved deals: Crusoe and CoreWeave both discount 10–30 percent for six-month commitments.

5. Move fast: GPU prices change monthly. Before a long training job, confirm today’s rate in the provider’s console.

Next steps

• Spin up a test instance on Thunder Compute in under two minutes and benchmark your script.

• Port your Lambda Labs Docker image by matching the CUDA version; all seven clouds support NVIDIA-Docker.

• Set an alert to re-shop every quarter as prices keep falling.

Bottom line: Any of these seven clouds will cut your A100 bill below Lambda Labs. Thunder Compute is the outright price winner today; CoreWeave and Crusoe bring premium networking and uptime; RunPod and Vast.ai squeeze out every cent for bursty work. Try one, compare times, and keep your model training budget under control.