# Cloud Run GPUs vs Northflank

> Cloud Run GPUs scores 68.4 (B) to Northflank's 54 (C) for gpu compute. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-11-07

Cloud Run GPUs scores 68.4 (B) on agent readiness against Northflank's 54 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Northflank leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do gpu compute.

- Cloud Run GPUs: grade B, 68.4/100, rank #288 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloud-run-gpus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloud-run-gpus.json
- Northflank: grade C, 54/100, rank #919 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/northflank.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/northflank.json
- Best GPU and serverless compute for AI workloads: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/gpu-compute/index.md
- All 231 gpu compute comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpu-compute/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cloud Run GPUs (B)

Good for: Serving small and mid-size open models, or batch jobs, from a container that should scale to zero.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 52
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 84 against 56

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Northflank loses 15 points for them

Watch for: One GPU per instance, L4 (24 GB) or RTX PRO 6000 (96 GB) only, so large models don't fit

### Northflank (C)

Good for: Teams that want GPUs next to their services and databases on one platform, or inside their own cloud account.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Watch for: A security incident opened on 30 October 2026, still open on 2 November, told customers to assume all environment variables were decrypted


## Why the edge

### Transparency & trust: Cloud Run GPUs +28

- Cloud Run GPUs (84): Closed service under the Google Cloud terms, with Apache-2.0 client libraries (15). The Cloud Data Processing Addendum and the privacy notice cover customer data, per the Document AI listing's 1 November reading; no Cloud Run statement on GPU instance data after shutdown was found (22). The Cloud terms promise 12 months' notice before a backwards-incompatible API change, and driver versions are announced in the release notes (16). Regions per GPU type listed, with Google's subprocessor list and data-location terms (16). 15+22+16+16 = 69.
- Northflank (56): Closed service under UK law (15). Terms and privacy policy are both dated 1 March 2021, more than five years old, with no retention periods we could find (10). Both still read Effective Date 1 March 2021 on 2 November. No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Regions and bring-your-own-cloud are documented; no subprocessor list found (8).

### Payments & pricing: Northflank +20

- Cloud Run GPUs (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-second GPU, CPU and memory prices published without a login (20). The Cloud Run free tier covers CPU and memory, not GPUs, and the $300 trial credit needs a payment method (0). A person creates the project and billing account in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.
- Northflank (40): No machine payment protocol (0). Per-hour GPU, vCPU and memory prices published without a login (20). The free Sandbox plan says "No card needed", with 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database, up to $20 a month of resources (20). Signup is a browser flow (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.

### Reliability: Northflank +15

- Cloud Run GPUs (70): Hosted reading. Google Cloud's status page with a JSON incident feed (20). In the 90 days from 8 August 2026 the feed names Cloud Run in three multi-product incidents, a service outage on 20 August (15:40 to 19:20 UTC, 27 products, global and us-west1), a network degradation in us-central1-b on 1 September and a europe-west2 disruption on 20 October. One major (10). Resource limits and GPU quota are published with numbers (3 GPUs a region by default), but no request rate for the Admin API was found on the quotas page (10). Google's client libraries retry with backoff and the Admin API takes etags, while no GPU-specific retry guidance was found (10). An SLA for GPU services, 99.95% with zonal redundancy and 99.5% without (10). GPU services generally available since 7 April 2025 (10). 20+10+10+10+10+10 = 70.
- Northflank (85): Graded on the hosted platform lines. Instatus page at status.northflank.com with per-component uptime and history (20). Five notices from 4 August to 2 November 2026. Workloads failed to start for some users across several regions for 1 hour on 5 August ("partial start up issues", labelled partial outage), addon expose was paused in US - Central for 2 hours 25 minutes on 4 September (maintenance), SSO through WorkOS was degraded for 46 minutes on 25 September, and on 20 October a GCP europe-west2 zone fault reached login and control plane components for part of 6 hours 50 minutes, with workloads unaffected and "the majority of users" unaffected. Each is partial, so minor. The 30 October "Security incident", still open on 2 November, marks the platform components as major outage but describes exposed secrets, not downtime, and the Northflank API component shows 100 per cent uptime for October, so it's scored as a negative event (20). 1,000 API requests an hour by default (15). A 429 past the limit, with `x-ratelimit-remaining` and `x-ratelimit-reset` on every response. No backoff or safe-retry guidance (10 of 15). The pricing page lists a 99.99 per cent uptime SLA and a custom SLA on Enterprise; no SLA document was found (10). Services, jobs and GPU workloads are GA (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 85.

### Agent ergonomics: Cloud Run GPUs +14

- Cloud Run GPUs (66): Platform reading. One `gcloud run deploy` with `--gpu` and `--gpu-type` adds a GPU to a container, and responses carry the service object with `fieldMask` on updates (15). List calls page with `pageSize` and `pageToken` (15). Google's status codes and messages, with quota errors that name the limit (12). Revisions are immutable, traffic can be moved back, and etags guard updates, but no idempotency key on create (12). Client libraries in many languages and gcloud, though a GPU deploy needs instance-based billing, minimum CPU and memory and, past 3 GPUs, a quota request (12). 15+15+12+12+12 = 66.
- Northflank (52): List endpoints take `per_page` (default 50, up to 100) and return small objects (15). `page` and a 24-character `cursor` on every list endpoint (20). Error responses aren't documented beyond the 429 (5). No idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance found (0). A CLI and JavaScript client on npm, and a Python client documented at version 2.1.0, with a hosted MCP server set up through the CLI's team login (12). 15 + 20 + 5 + 0 + 12 = 52.

### Maintenance & community: Cloud Run GPUs +10

- Cloud Run GPUs (80): Closed service with official SDKs. The newest GPU change is 30 October 2026, jobs with GPUs running up to 12 hours (30). Cloud Run release notes dated 4 November, 2 November, 30 October, 24 October and more in the 90 days (20). Release notes, Google Cloud support and public trackers for the client libraries, which were not read (10). Official client libraries in eight languages and gcloud (15). CI results not checked (5). 30+20+10+15+5 = 80.
- Northflank (70): The newest changelog digest is dated 24 September 2026, 39 days before the check. The status page's dated updates on 30 and 31 October 2026 announce secret rotation for Postgres, MongoDB and RabbitMQ add-ons and audit logs for all customers, platform changes on the vendor's own page within 30 days (30). Digests come every two months, so one falls in the 90 days from 4 August (24 September, the 23 July digest having left), with the October changes on the status page. Half credit (10). Closed service with a dated changelog and a support address for rate-limit increases (10 of 15). A CLI and JavaScript client on npm and a Python client the docs put at 2.1.0. npm and PyPI couldn't be read on 2 November (15). npm packages not audited (5). 30 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 70.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloud Run GPUs | Northflank | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 85 | Northflank +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 81 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 52 | Cloud Run GPUs +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 78 | 82 | Northflank +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Northflank +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 70 | Cloud Run GPUs +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 56 | Cloud Run GPUs +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -15 | |
| **Total** | | **68.4 · B** | **54 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloud Run GPUs | Northflank |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Google Cloud | Northflank |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://run.googleapis.com` | `https://api.northflank.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | Token |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Google Cloud Platform terms. Client libraries are Apache-2.0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-02 | 2021-03-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-28 | 2021-03-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | none | 19k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Cloud Run GPUs

No score change since it was listed.

### Northflank

- -7.4 on 2 November 2026: pricing, product, new evidence, correction, negative event
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- -0.5 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Cloud Run GPUs.** Serverless GPUs on Cloud Run, an L4 or RTX PRO 6000 per instance, billed per second, scaling to zero and starting in about 5 seconds before the model loads, with a published SLA and IAM. One GPU per instance, 3 GPUs of default quota a region and instance-based billing limit it to small and mid-size models.

**Northflank.** Northflank runs services, jobs, databases and GPUs on its cloud or the customer's, with an OpenAPI 3.0 contract, scoped team tokens and a free sandbox that needs no card. On 30 October 2026 it told every customer to assume their environment variables were decrypted, still open on 2 November, while its security page says it has never been breached.

## Before you call either

### Cloud Run GPUs

1. Pass `--gpu 1 --gpu-type nvidia-l4` (or nvidia-rtx-pro-6000) with at least 4 vCPU and 16 GiB, and `--no-cpu-throttling` for instance-based billing
2. Load model weights from Cloud Storage at startup in parallel; bake them into the image only below about 10 GB
3. Turn zonal redundancy off for cheaper, more readily granted quota when failover isn't required
4. Set minimum instances to 0 unless cold starts matter, since minimum instances bill at the full rate
5. Send OAuth tokens in the `Authorization` header, never as `access_token` in the URL

### Northflank

1. Rotate every secret stored in Northflank, including AI provider keys, and check provider billing before trusting existing credentials. The 30 October 2026 incident was still open on 2 November
2. Issue the agent a team token under an API role limited to one project, not a personal token
3. Read `x-ratelimit-remaining` and wait `x-ratelimit-reset` seconds on a 429. The default is 1,000 calls an hour
4. Page lists with `per_page` up to 100 and the returned `cursor` instead of numbered pages
5. Use a job, not a service, for anything that finishes. Services bill until paused or deleted

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloud Run GPUs or Northflank?

Cloud Run GPUs scores 68.4 (B) on agent readiness against Northflank's 54 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Northflank leads on reliability and payments & pricing.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-northflank.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-northflank.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cloud-run-gpus", "b": "northflank"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cloud-run-gpus northflank`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloud-run-gpus.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/northflank.json

## Other comparisons with Cloud Run GPUs or Northflank

- [Baseten vs Cloud Run GPUs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-cloud-run-gpus.md)
- [Baseten vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-northflank.md)
- [Beam vs Cloud Run GPUs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-cloud-run-gpus.md)
- [Beam vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-northflank.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Cloud Run GPUs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-cloud-run-gpus.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-northflank.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs CoreWeave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-coreweave.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Crusoe Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-crusoe-cloud.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs GPUsMarket](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-gpusmarket.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Hugging Face Inference Endpoints](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-hugging-face-inference-endpoints.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Hyperbolic](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-hyperbolic.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-lambda.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Massed Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-massed-compute.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Nebius AI Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-nebius-ai-cloud.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Together GPU Clusters](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-together-gpu-clusters.md)
- [CoreWeave vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-northflank.md)
- [Crusoe Cloud vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crusoe-cloud-vs-northflank.md)
- [GPUsMarket vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpusmarket-vs-northflank.md)
- [Hugging Face Inference Endpoints vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-endpoints-vs-northflank.md)
- [Hyperbolic vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperbolic-vs-northflank.md)
- [Koyeb vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-northflank.md)
- [Lambda Cloud vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-northflank.md)
- [Massed Compute vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/massed-compute-vs-northflank.md)
- [Modal vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-northflank.md)
- [Nebius AI Cloud vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-ai-cloud-vs-northflank.md)
- [Northflank vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Northflank vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-runpod.md)
- [Northflank vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Northflank vs Together GPU Clusters](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-together-gpu-clusters.md)
- [Northflank vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Northflank vs Verda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-verda.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-modal.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-runpod.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Cloud Run GPUs vs Verda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloud-run-gpus-vs-verda.md)

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