# Crusoe Cloud vs Vast.ai

> Crusoe Cloud and Vast.ai score within a point of each other for gpu compute, 63.4 and 62.6 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crusoe-cloud-vs-vast-ai
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crusoe-cloud-vs-vast-ai.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crusoe-cloud-vs-vast-ai.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crusoe-cloud-vs-vast-ai.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Crusoe Cloud and Vast.ai score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 63.4 (B) and 62.6 (B). Vast.ai leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do gpu compute.

- Crusoe Cloud: grade B, 63.4/100, rank #396 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crusoe-cloud.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crusoe-cloud.json
- Vast.ai: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #425 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json
- Best GPU and serverless compute for AI workloads: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/gpu-compute/index.md
- All 167 gpu compute comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpu-compute/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Crusoe Cloud (B)

Good for: Teams that want whole GPU machines or clusters with managed Kubernetes or Slurm in the US, Iceland or Norway, under an SLA, and are content to manage lifecycles themselves.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 62

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No idempotency key or safe-retry guidance was found for create and delete calls, which return asynchronous operations to poll.

### Vast.ai (B)

Good for: Cost-sensitive training, batch work and self-managed inference where the agent can search listings, set a price cap and tolerate host variance or interruption.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 45
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 76

Watch for: No SLA. The terms say availability is not guaranteed and the service can change without notice


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Crusoe Cloud | Vast.ai | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 65 | Crusoe Cloud +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 78 | Crusoe Cloud +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 45 | 57 | Vast.ai +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 72 | Crusoe Cloud +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | Crusoe Cloud +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 81 | Vast.ai +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 62 | Crusoe Cloud +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.4 · B** | **62.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crusoe Cloud | Vast.ai |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Crusoe | Vast.ai Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloud.crusoe.ai/v1` | `https://console.vast.ai/api/v0` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Crusoe Cloud Platform Terms of Service. The Go client and the MCP server package are MIT. The CLI ships as binaries, and no licence file was found in the Terraform provider repository | Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 41 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-06-18 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 7 npm/wk | 223 stars, 33k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Crusoe Cloud.** The v1 REST API has a published OpenAPI description, Markdown docs, HMAC-signed keys, reader roles and a 90-day audit log, with on-demand GPU prices public. No idempotency keys or control-plane rate limits were found, spot and B200 prices go through sales, and a storage outage in eu-norway1 lasted about four hours on 29 September 2026.

**Vast.ai.** API keys can be limited by permission category and by resource ID, the REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, and the CLI ships weekly with a skill file for coding agents. Machines belong to independent hosts, prices move with the market, rate-limit thresholds are unpublished, and there is no SLA or free tier.

## Before you call either

### Crusoe Cloud

1. Sign every request. Build the payload from path, sorted query string, verb and `X-Crusoe-Timestamp`, HMAC-SHA256 it with the base64url-decoded secret, and send `Authorization: Bearer 1.0:<access_key_id>:<signature>`.
2. Use `https://api.cloud.crusoe.ai/v1`. Some docs pages and the MCP server still name `api.crusoecloud.com` and `/v1alpha5`.
3. Creates, updates and deletes return an operation. Poll the matching operations endpoint for `state`, and list existing resources by name before retrying a create, because no idempotency key was found.
4. Managed AI uses separate Intelligence API keys and hosts, `api.inference.crusoecloud.com` for OpenAI-compatible calls and `api.intelligence.crusoecloud.com` for files and fine-tuning jobs.
5. Delete a VM and its disks to stop charges. A stopped on-demand VM is not billed for compute, but its 128 GB OS disk still bills at $0.08 a GiB-month.

### Vast.ai

1. Create a scoped key with `vastai create api-key --permissions` for the agent. A default key has full account access, billing and key management included
2. Pass `--raw` on every CLI command for JSON output, and `-y` on `vastai destroy instance`, which otherwise waits for a confirmation prompt
3. Register an SSH key with `vastai create ssh-key` before creating an instance, or the host is unreachable
4. Destroy instances when finished. A stopped instance still bills storage, and a zero balance without a saved card leads to deletion
5. Back off on HTTP 429 yourself when calling REST directly. The CLI retries 429 three times from 0.15 seconds
6. Filter searches with `verified=true` or the Secure Cloud option for sensitive data, and set a `dph_total` price cap

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Crusoe Cloud or Vast.ai?

Crusoe Cloud and Vast.ai score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 63.4 (B) and 62.6 (B). Vast.ai leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

### Do Crusoe Cloud and Vast.ai need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Crusoe Cloud and Vast.ai without installing anything?

Yes. Crusoe Cloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloud.crusoe.ai/v1 and Vast.ai at https://console.vast.ai/api/v0.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Crusoe Cloud or Vast.ai

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