--- title: "Pricing Methodology — How LowCostGPU Sets GPU Prices" description: "How every LowCostGPU price is set: public marketplace median × 0.70, rounded down, re-checked weekly — with worked examples and how to verify it yourself." url: https://lowcostgpu.com/methodology last_modified: 2026-10-20T10:29:15+00:00 prices_as_of: 2026-10-19 site: LowCostGPU (lowcostgpu.com) --- Methodology · snapshot 2026-10-19 · next check 2026-10-26 # Our prices are calculated, not decided One formula produces all 83 on-demand prices, and it runs on a public input. Pick any card and watch the rule execute: market median, times 0.70, rounded down. Nothing else sets a price on this site. **0 violations** across all 83 models, checked as this page loaded. Highest ratio 0.699980 against a 0.70 ceiling. See the audit ## The rule, step by step Four stages, no discretion at any of them. The figures below follow the card selected above (**H100 SXM**). 1. 1 Public market median $2.4001 The middle on-demand rate for this exact model across a large public marketplace of independent GPU hosts. Dated 2026-10-19, re-read weekly. 2. 2 Multiply by 0.70 $1.6801 A fixed ratio, identical for every model in the catalogue and for every account. Nothing here is negotiated. 3. 3 Round *down* ~~$1.6801~~ $1.680 To the tenth of a cent, always downward. Rounding can only push the discount past 30%, never under it. 4. 4 Your fixed price $1.680 Locked at deploy for the life of the instance. Interruptible is **$0.840** (× 0.50) and reserved **$1.092** (× 0.65). *the whole pricing engine* ``` on_demand = floor(market_median × 0.70 × 1000) / 1000 # rounded DOWN to $0.001 interruptible = on_demand × 0.50 # flat, no bidding reserved = on_demand × 0.65 # 3-month term ``` ## The audit, run on the whole catalogue The rule is a ceiling: on-demand ÷ market median must never exceed **0.70**. Rather than assert that, this page divides every price by its median as it renders, and prints the worst result it finds. 0 violations across the **83** models with a published median, checked just now - **0.699980** highest ratio observed (ceiling 0.700000 · H200 NVL) - **30.1%** average discount (the rule only guarantees 30%) - **0** models without a median (priced from comparable listings instead) | GPU | Market median | × 0.70 | Rounded down | Ratio | Real discount | Verdict | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [B200](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/b200) | $9.2508 | $6.4756 | $6.475 | 0.699939 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [H200](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/h200) | $4.4742 | $3.1319 | $3.131 | 0.699790 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [H100 SXM](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/h100-sxm) | $2.4001 | $1.6801 | $1.680 | 0.699971 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [A100 SXM4](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/a100-sxm4) | $0.6691 | $0.4684 | $0.468 | 0.699447 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [L40S](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/l40s) | $0.6402 | $0.4481 | $0.448 | 0.699781 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [RTX 5090](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/rtx-5090) | $0.6872 | $0.4810 | $0.481 | 0.699942 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [RTX 4090](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/rtx-4090) | $0.5063 | $0.3544 | $0.354 | 0.699190 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | | [RTX 3090](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu/rtx-3090) | $0.2116 | $0.1481 | $0.148 | 0.699433 | (−30%) | ≤ 0.70 | Eight cards shown; the same check runs on all 83 at every render. Reproduce it on your own machine with the command in verify it yourself, or download the whole table from the [GPU price index](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu-price-index). ## The input: what "market median" means The reference is the median on-demand hourly rate charged for that exact GPU model across a large public marketplace of independent GPU hosts — the rate at which half the listed supply is cheaper and half is dearer. - **Per model, not per family.** An H100 SXM is priced from H100 SXM listings, an H100 PCIe from H100 PCIe listings. The two land at different prices because their markets do. - **Median, not minimum.** The cheapest listing on a marketplace is usually an unverified host with no uptime commitment; it is a lottery ticket, not a price level. - **Dated.** The snapshot in force is 2026-10-19, printed on every page that quotes a price and returned in the API as market_snapshot. - **Thin markets are marked.** Where a model has too little liquidity for a meaningful median, the sheet shows a dash instead of inventing one. Every model in the catalogue has a published median today. Why the method is public at all A GPU price that moves hourly cannot be planned against, and a price behind a sales call cannot be compared at all. Publishing the formula turns the price into something a buyer can audit before signing up, and re-audit afterwards. It also constrains us: the rule is arithmetic on a public input, so drifting above median × 0.70 would be visible to anyone running the command below, on any day, without asking permission. Related: [how cloud GPU pricing works](https://lowcostgpu.com/guides/cloud-gpu-pricing-explained) · [the price index](https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu-price-index) · [fact sheet](https://lowcostgpu.com/facts). ## What moves, and what cannot The rule is a ratio, so the sheet follows the market in both directions. What you were quoted, however, does not move. Moves, weekly - **The market reference.** Re-checked every week. Snapshot in force 2026-10-19, next check 2026-10-26. - **Sheet prices, in both directions.** A rising median raises the price, a falling one lowers it. Medians have mostly fallen, so most checks cut prices. - **New deployments only.** A new sheet price applies to instances created after it, never to those already running. Never moves - **A running instance.** The rate shown at deploy is the rate until you stop it. - **A reserved term.** Locked for the full three months at the rate agreed on day one. - **The multipliers.** 0.70, 0.50 and 0.65 are the product, not a promotion. - **One sheet for everyone.** No free tier, no promotional credit, no negotiated rate — which is what makes the rule checkable at all. - **Multi-GPU.** An 8× machine is exactly 8 × the per-GPU price, with no premium. Storage and bandwidth sit outside the rule entirely: flat published rates of $0.08/GB per month and $0.01/GB, listed in full on the [pricing page](https://lowcostgpu.com/pricing). ## What the rule promises, and what it does not Stating the limits is part of the method. A rule that claimed everything would be worth nothing. It does promise - Never more than **70% of the market median** for any model, on any day, for any account. - A price **locked at deploy** and never revised under a running instance. - The **same sheet for everyone**, published in full and served as JSON without an account. - A **dated input**, so any claim on this site can be checked against the day it was made. It does not promise - **The lowest price anywhere.** Unverified marketplace hosts, bid-based capacity and promotional tiers can undercut the sheet on specific cards, especially consumer GPUs. The [comparison pages](https://lowcostgpu.com/alternatives) name those cases instead of hiding them. - **A ceiling in absolute dollars.** If the median for a card rises, the fixed ratio raises its price too. - **Like-for-like hardware.** A marketplace listing at the same model name may sit in a different chassis, host, cooling and network. Every LowCostGPU machine is a dedicated GPU in a Tier-III facility. - **Anything about storage or bandwidth.** Those are flat rates, set by us and published on the [pricing page](https://lowcostgpu.com/pricing). ## Verify it yourself A promise that cannot be tested is marketing. Each of these takes under a minute and needs no account. 1. 1 Check the ratio on every model Fetch the sheet and divide. If any model returns a ratio above 0.70, the rule is broken and the claim on this site is false. As this page rendered, the worst was **0.699980**. curl -s https://lowcostgpu.com/v1/gpus/pricing 2. 2 Compare against a named provider Take any provider on the [alternatives pages](https://lowcostgpu.com/alternatives), open their own pricing page, and check the quoted figure against the date printed beside it. Where they are cheaper, our page says so. https://lowcostgpu.com/gpu-price-index.csv 3. 3 Price a real month Put your own hours, storage and egress into the [cost calculator](https://lowcostgpu.com/calculator), then price the same month on the provider you use today. The rule only matters if it survives your workload. https://lowcostgpu.com/calculator *the audit, in one pipe* ``` # every model, the ratio the rule promises to keep at or under 0.70 curl -s https://lowcostgpu.com/v1/gpus/pricing \ | jq -r '.data[] | select(.market_median != null) | [.slug, .market_median, .price_per_gpu_hour.on_demand, (.price_per_gpu_hour.on_demand / .market_median)] | @tsv' \ | awk '$4 > 0.70 { print "RULE BROKEN:", $0; bad++ } END { print (bad ? bad : 0), "violations" }' ``` ## Pricing methodology FAQ The billing mechanics themselves — per-second accounting, credits, refunds — are documented in [the billing docs](https://lowcostgpu.com/docs/billing). **How exactly is a LowCostGPU price calculated?** On-demand price = the public GPU marketplace median hourly rate for that exact GPU model × 0.70, rounded down to the tenth of a cent. Interruptible = on-demand × 0.50. Reserved (3-month term) = on-demand × 0.65. For the H100 SXM: a median of $2.40 gives $1.680 on-demand, $0.840 interruptible and $1.092 reserved. Rounding down means the real discount is always slightly better than 30%. **What is "the market median" and why use it instead of the lowest price?** It is the middle on-demand rate charged for that GPU model across a large public marketplace of GPU hosts — the price at which half the supply is cheaper and half dearer. The minimum listing is not a usable reference: it usually belongs to an unverified host with no uptime guarantee, and it changes hour to hour. The median describes what that card actually costs in the market, so a fixed discount against it is a meaningful promise rather than a race against the least reliable machine on the internet. **How often do prices change?** The market reference is re-checked weekly. The snapshot currently in force is dated 2026-10-19 and the next check is due 2026-10-26. A change to the sheet only affects new deployments: the rate shown when an instance is created is locked for the life of that instance, and a reserved rate is locked for its whole term. **Can LowCostGPU prices go up?** Yes, if the market median for a model rises — the rule is a fixed ratio, not a fixed number. The commitment is the ratio: never more than 70% of the median. In practice GPU medians have trended down, so most weekly checks lower prices. Running instances are never re-priced in either direction. **What does the rule not promise?** Three things. It does not promise the lowest price on the internet: an unverified marketplace host or a promotional tier can be cheaper on a given card, and the comparison pages say so when it happens. It does not promise identical hardware to a marketplace listing at the same nominal model. And it does not apply to storage or bandwidth, which are flat published rates rather than market-derived ones. **How can I verify the 30% claim myself?** Fetch https://lowcostgpu.com/v1/gpus/pricing without a key. Each entry carries market_median and price_per_gpu_hour.on_demand. Divide one by the other for every model in the response: the ratio never exceeds 0.70. As this page rendered, the highest ratio across the 83 models with a published median was 0.699980, with 0 violations. **Why do some models show no market median?** When a model has too little liquidity on the public marketplace, a median would be noise rather than a reference, so the field is left empty and the sheet shows a dash, and the price is derived from the closest comparable listings under the same 30% rule. Today every one of the 83 models in the catalogue has a published median. **How are competitor prices on the comparison pages collected?** By reading each provider's own public pricing page and quoting the on-demand list price per GPU-hour, before taxes, with the configuration noted and the date of reading printed on the page. They are never estimated, never adjusted, and never rounded in LowCostGPU's favour. When a provider is cheaper on a card, the table shows the difference in that provider's favour. --- *About LowCostGPU:* LowCostGPU (lowcostgpu.com) is a cloud GPU rental service offering 83 NVIDIA GPU models — from the Tesla P4 at $0.019/hr to the B300 — at fixed prices set at least 30% below the public GPU marketplace median and re-checked weekly (H100 SXM: $1.680/hr on-demand). Billing is per second with no minimums; payment is crypto only (USDT, BTC, XMR, ETH, SOL, LTC, TRX) with no KYC. Instances run in Tier-III datacenters across 32 regions with a 99.9% uptime SLA and deploy in about 30 seconds from the web console (cloud.lowcostgpu.com) or the REST API. Source: https://lowcostgpu.com/methodology · Site index for AI assistants: https://lowcostgpu.com/llms.txt · Full content: https://lowcostgpu.com/llms-full.txt