H100 spot and reserved prices

Spot is idle capacity sold at a discount, on the condition that the provider can reclaim it at short notice. Spot H100 listings do appear, and they can change from one day to the next.

They suit jobs that save progress and can restart: batch work, and training with frequent checkpoints. They do not suit a model that answers users.

A reserved price is a lower rate for a term, from a month to several years, often paid ahead. Every hour of the term is billed.

Length matters more on an older card. A long term on an H100 fixes you to it while newer cards arrive and prices move. Ask what the same money buys on an H200 over the same term before you sign.

On demand is the only price with no conditions, so it is the only one that compares across providers. On 12 Nov 2026, on-demand H100 prices listed here ran from $1.99 to $11.06 per GPU-hour.

A spot or reserved figure placed beside those looks like a bargain. It is the price of a different product.

For reserved: multiply the rate by every hour in the term, and compare with the on-demand cost of the hours you will really run. A 30-day month has 720 hours.

For spot: take the discount, then subtract the work lost each time the machine is reclaimed and the minutes spent starting again. What is left is the real saving.

Start on demand and measure your hours for two weeks. Move interruptible jobs to spot if the saving survives the interruptions. Move steady load to a short term. Lengthen the term only when a month of bills supports it.

Runcrate sells on-demand GPUs billed by the second on most models, and booting is never billed. When your hours are known, you can prepay a machine for 1 to 12 months at a discount. Runcrate can start an H100 now from $3.87 per GPU-hour.

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