# Koyeb vs Thunder Compute

> Thunder Compute scores 56.1 (C) on agent readiness against Koyeb's 46.5 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Koyeb leads on agent ergonomics. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-thunder-compute
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-thunder-compute.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-thunder-compute.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-thunder-compute.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

Thunder Compute scores 56.1 (C) on agent readiness against Koyeb's 46.5 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Koyeb leads on agent ergonomics. Both do compute gpu.

- Koyeb: grade D, 46.5/100, rank #755 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/koyeb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/koyeb.json
- Thunder Compute: grade C, 56.1/100, rank #576 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/thunder-compute.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/thunder-compute.json

## Which one, for what

### Koyeb (D)

Good for: Teams that want cheap H100 or H200 containers with scale to zero and an SLA, deployed from Git or an image without a vendor SDK.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 48

Watch for: Changelog silent since 27 February 2026 and no CLI release since 12 May 2026

### Thunder Compute (C)

Good for: Agents in coding tools that rent a single persistent GPU machine for development, fine-tuning or a model server, at low hourly prices and over MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 60
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 41
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 23

Watch for: No rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA were found in the reviewed documentation, and the terms disclaim availability


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Koyeb | Thunder Compute | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 65 | Thunder Compute +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 41 | 70 | Thunder Compute +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 48 | Koyeb +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 50 | 51 | Thunder Compute +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 20 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 23 | 79 | Thunder Compute +56 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 64 | Thunder Compute +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **46.5 · D** | **56.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Koyeb | Thunder Compute |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Koyeb | Thunder Compute |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.koyeb.com/v1` | `https://api.thundercompute.com:8443/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | Token | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for compute gpu | not published | $0.219 per GB per month |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Thunder Compute's Terms and Conditions. The `tnr` CLI on GitHub is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.Thunder-Compute/thunder-compute` |
| Last release | 2026-05-12 | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-28 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 72 stars | 34 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Koyeb.** H100 at $2.50 and H200 at $3.00 an hour, billed per second. Changelog silent since 27 February 2026 and no CLI release since 12 May 2026.

**Thunder Compute.** The hosted MCP server signs in with OAuth and separate read and write scopes, and the REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document with keyless price and availability endpoints. No rate limits, SLA or API changelog were found, instance creation has no idempotency key, and instances cannot be stopped, only deleted.

## Before you call either

### Koyeb

1. Pass `dry_run` on service create or update to validate the definition before anything deploys
2. Page service lists with `limit` and `offset` and filter by `statuses` instead of fetching everything
3. Expect the first request after deep sleep to take 1 to 5 seconds and retry once with a timeout
4. Set `--min-scale 0` on GPU services so idle instances stop billing
5. Re-check the Mistral transition before building anything long-lived on it

### Thunder Compute

1. Call `GET /v2/status` or the `get_availability` tool before creating an instance. Availability can change before launch, and creation fails when a type is sold out.
2. List instances before retrying a failed create, because the call has no idempotency key.
3. Pass `public_key` on create. If omitted, the response carries a generated private key that is returned once.
4. To pause work, create a snapshot, delete the instance and later create a new instance from the snapshot. Snapshot storage keeps billing until deleted.
5. For headless use set `TNR_API_TOKEN` to a token from the console. The MCP server needs a browser sign-in on first connection.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Koyeb or Thunder Compute?

Thunder Compute scores 56.1 (C) on agent readiness against Koyeb's 46.5 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Koyeb leads on agent ergonomics.

### Can an agent call Koyeb and Thunder Compute without installing anything?

Yes. Koyeb has a hosted endpoint at https://app.koyeb.com/v1 and Thunder Compute at https://api.thundercompute.com:8443/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Koyeb or Thunder Compute

- [Baseten vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Baseten vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Beam vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Beam vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Cerebrium vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [CoreWeave vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-koyeb.md)
- [CoreWeave vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Hugging Face Inference Endpoints vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-endpoints-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Hugging Face Inference Endpoints vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hugging-face-inference-endpoints-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Hyperbolic vs Koyeb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperbolic-vs-koyeb.md)
- [Hyperbolic vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperbolic-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Koyeb vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-lambda.md)
- [Koyeb vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-modal.md)
- [Koyeb vs Nebius AI Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-nebius-ai-cloud.md)
- [Koyeb vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-northflank.md)
- [Koyeb vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-replicate-deploy.md)
- [Koyeb vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-runpod.md)
- [Koyeb vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Koyeb vs Verda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-verda.md)
- [Lambda Cloud vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Modal vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Nebius AI Cloud vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nebius-ai-cloud-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Northflank vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Replicate Deployments vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/replicate-deploy-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Runpod vs Thunder Compute](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-thunder-compute.md)
- [Thunder Compute vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thunder-compute-vs-vast-ai.md)
- [Thunder Compute vs Verda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/thunder-compute-vs-verda.md)