GPU TCO Calculator
Sticker $/hr is what a cloud advertises. Here's what it actually costs once you add egress, storage, networking and overhead — and exactly when buying the hardware beats renting it. Pick a GPU, set your usage, and this computes your true all-in $/hr and the rent-vs-buy breakeven in months — live, from the gpuprice.in feed.
📊 Compute $/hr = cheapest live on-demand rental (source: parallel.ai).
1. Set up your scenario
Hidden-cost defaults (methodology estimates — edit to match your provider)
Rates per unit are editable business-model defaults on this page — refine $/GB, $/TB and % to mirror your actual provider. They are not live feed data.
GPU TCO
2. Selected GPU — RENT vs BUY
| GPU | RENT $/HR (ADV) | RENT $/HR (TRUE) | RENT $/MO | BUY $/HR | BUY $/MO | BUY HARDWARE | BREAKEVEN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computing… |
3. All five GPUs at your settings
| GPU | RENT $/HR (ADV) | RENT $/HR (TRUE) | BUY $/HR | $/HR vs RENT | BREAKEVEN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computing… |
Read this table: at your hours-per-month and horizon, buy-cheaper GPUs beat renting only if you saturate them. The RTX 5090 (buy ≈ $4.5k) is the easiest to justify owning; an H100 or B200 needs near-24/7 use for years to beat renting. The breakeven column is honest math from YOUR sliders — not a vendor marketing figure.
How to read the numbers (honest methodology)
- Advertised $/hr = cheapest live on-demand rate from the gpuprice.in feed (real, updated daily).
- TRUE all-in adds data egress + storage + a networking/managed premium + a small ops-overhead buffer. Research shows these easily add 10–30% to advertised compute — that gap is what most cost surprise buyers.
- Buy side = hardware price spread over your ownership months (straight-line) + electricity (watts × hours × your $/kWh) + cooling + maintenance/support. It ignores residual/resale value, which only helps the buy case.
- Breakeven month = when cumulative rent savings from owning cross the upfront hardware cost. Past it, you own the GPU. This ignores hardware risk: a bought GPU can be obsolete or fail; a rented one you can walk away from.
- Be honest about utilization. If you rent a GPU that idles, you're paying advertised $/hr anyway. If your own GPU idles, that's wasted depreciation. Real TCO favors whoever you actually keep busy.
- Not financial advice. Defaults are methodology estimates; egress/storage/electric rates vary by provider, region and contract. This is a planning tool, not a quote.
Frequently asked questions
Why is sticker $/hr misleading?
Clouds advertise pure GPU compute. Once data leaves the provider (egress is often $0.05–$0.20/GB), you store checkpoints/datasets, add load balancers and managed networking, and absorb admin time — the real cost lands 10–30% above the headline. This calculator shows that gap live.
When does buying a GPU actually make sense?
Three signals must align: you run it nearly continuously, the workload won't outgrow it for years, and you accept depreciation + failure risk. For H100-class a ~24/7 workload often breaks even in 1–2 years of rent savings. For an RTX 5090 (cheap hardware) the math favors owning much earlier.
Does this account for India pricing?
Rental $/hr already includes India-relevant providers (E2E Networks, Vast, etc.). For bought hardware, set a realistic blended electricity rate; India's commercial rates vary by state (roughly ₹6–₹9 per unit ≈ $0.07–$0.11/kWh), so use your state's tariff. All INR conversions on the site use ₹ per USD at the current feed rate.