{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "lambda", "name": "Lambda Cloud", "vendor": "Lambda", "vendorUrl": "https://lambda.ai", "kind": "http-api", "category": "gpu-compute", "summary": "On-demand GPU virtual machines and clusters, with an API for provisioning compute and persistent storage.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lambda", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lambda.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lambda.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lambda.json", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1", "packages": [], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "API key created at cloud.lambda.ai/api-keys and sent as `Authorization: Bearer`. HTTP Basic with the key as the username (`curl -u 'KEY:'`) still works as a legacy option. SSH keys registered in the account are injected into launched instances.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "On-demand, per GPU an hour, Tesla V100 16 GB $0.79, A100 40 GB $1.99, A100 80 GB $2.79, H100 SXM 80 GB $3.99, B200 180 GB $6.69. 1-Click Clusters of HGX B200 are quoted per GPU-hour at $9.86 for 16 GPUs, $9.36 for 64 and $8.87 for 256 or more on two-week to one-year commitments. Instances bill in one-minute increments from the moment they pass health checks until you terminate them, invoiced weekly. Filesystems bill per GB used a month in one-hour increments. No free tier (https://lambda.ai/pricing, https://docs.lambda.ai/public-cloud/billing/).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.lambda.ai/public-cloud/on-demand/", "openapi": "https://docs.lambda.ai/api/cloud/spec.json", "capabilities": [ "compute.gpu", "compute.containers" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage-priced", "openapi", "enterprise" ], "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 50, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 523, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 629, "categoryRank": 10, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 5, "payments": 20, "reliability": 50, "schema": 69, "security": 60, "transparency": 58 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "H100 SXM at $3.99 and B200 at $6.69 an hour with per-minute billing. No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated.", "bestFor": "Agents or pipelines that need a whole GPU machine with SSH for hours, such as training or batch jobs, and will manage the lifecycle themselves.", "strengths": [ "H100 SXM at $3.99 and B200 at $6.69 an hour with per-minute billing", "OpenAPI 3.1 spec with documented error codes, a `suggestion` field and cursor pagination", "Audit events endpoint filterable by time and resource type", "Published rate limits, one request a second and one launch every 12 seconds", "Trust portal with SOC 2 Type 2 and four ISO certifications, and a named subprocessor list" ], "weaknesses": [ "No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated", "Ten status incidents in two months, including a two-day regional outage in August 2026", "No changelog, no llms.txt and no official SDK", "API keys have no scopes and launch has no idempotency key", "security.txt expired on 1 June 2026 and no free tier" ], "agentNotes": [ "Call `GET /instance-types` first and read `regions_with_capacity_available` before trying to launch", "Space launch calls 12 seconds apart; a sixth in a minute returns 429 with `global/rate-limited`", "Branch on the error `code`, not the `message` or `suggestion`, which Lambda says may change", "List instances before retrying a failed launch, since there's no idempotency key and a retry can start a second machine", "Terminate the instance in a `finally` block; billing runs by the minute until you do" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 50 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 5, "payments": 20, "reliability": 50, "schema": 69, "security": 60, "transparency": 48 }, "provenanceScore": 67 }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1/instance-types\" -H \"Authorization: Bearer $LAMBDA_API_KEY\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/compute.gpu", "tool": "https://letme.dev/lambda" }, "area": "models", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "H100 SXM 80 GB", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 3.99, "note": "Billed per minute" }, { "item": "B200 180 GB", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 6.69 }, { "item": "A100 SXM 80 GB", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 2.79 }, { "item": "A100 SXM 40 GB", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 1.99 }, { "item": "Tesla V100 16 GB", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 0.79 }, { "item": "HGX B200 1-Click Cluster, 16 GPUs", "unit": "gpu-hour", "usd": 9.86, "note": "Two-week to one-year commitment; $8.87 at 256 GPUs or more" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Lambda, Inc.", "domain": "lambda.ai", "domainRegistered": "", "domainNote": "Lambda moved from lambdalabs.com, registered 2008-05-29, to lambda.ai. The .ai registry's RDAP server rate-limited our lookup of the new domain.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://lambda.ai/legal/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://lambda.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.lambda.ai", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "expired", "checked": "2026-09-30", "notes": [ "Terms dated August 2025 and the privacy policy of 1 January 2026 name Lambda, Inc., 2510 Zanker Road, San Jose, California.", "The API runs on cloud.lambda.ai, a subdomain of the vendor domain.", "security.txt expired 2026-06-01 and has no Policy field.", "No public changelog found for the cloud. The OpenAPI spec reports version 1.10.0." ], "score": 67 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lambda.json", "live": { "slug": "lambda", "probe": { "target": "https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:51.093682836Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 403, "lastMs": 905, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 99.95, "p50ms24h": 605, "p95ms24h": 885, "samples24h": 272, "samples30d": 1933, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 109, "ok": 109 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 217, "ok": 217 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.lambda.ai", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T19:06:44.684478555Z" }, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://lambda.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "expired", "expires": "2026-06-01T16:00:00Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:48.494823468Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "lambda.ai", "registered": "2017-12-16", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/lambda.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:04:37.89683091Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://lambda.ai/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:21:12.626677302Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "ad7e156559d1" }, { "url": "https://lambda.ai/legal/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:21:08.557293205Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "921eec75dd83" }, { "url": "https://lambda.ai/legal/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:21:10.609958388Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "40e40aee2e7c" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-08T19:08:51.093682836Z" } }, "answer": "Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics.", "b": { "slug": "vast-ai", "name": "Vast.ai", "vendor": "Vast.ai Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://vast.ai", "kind": "http-api", "category": "gpu-compute", "summary": "Vast.ai is a marketplace for renting GPUs by the second from independent hosts and data centres, as Docker instances, virtual machines or autoscaling serverless endpoints. Agents use the `vastai` CLI, a Python SDK or a REST API.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json", "repo": "https://github.com/vast-ai/vast-cli", "license": "Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://console.vast.ai/api/v0", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "vastai" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "API key from the console's Keys page, sent as `Authorization: Bearer` to https://console.vast.ai/api/v0, or stored once with `vastai set api-key`. Access is self-serve after a browser signup and email verification. A key has full account access by default. Scoped keys take any of 11 permission categories (`instance_read`, `instance_write`, `billing_write` and others) and constraints that narrow an endpoint to resource IDs. Keys are shown once, and can be reset or deleted with immediate effect. The rate-limit page names an `api_key` query parameter as part of a caller's identity, while the authentication page documents only the header.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Prepaid credit with a $5 minimum deposit and no free tier or trial found. Each host sets its own rate per listing, so there is no fixed price list. Live rates are public at vast.ai/pricing and through `vastai search offers`. GPU time bills per second while an instance runs, storage per second while it exists (stopped included) and bandwidth per byte. Interruptible rentals are bid-priced and reserved rentals are prepaid for 1, 3 or 6 months. Serverless adds no fee on top of instance rates. Spent credit is not refunded (https://docs.vast.ai/guides/reference/billing.md, https://docs.vast.ai/guides/instances/pricing.md, checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs index, llms.txt, the agent pricing page or the OpenAPI file (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 223, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 32699, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.vast.ai", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.vast.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.vast.ai/api-reference/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "compute.gpu", "compute.containers", "compute.serverless", "compute.endpoints" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "marketplace", "usage-priced", "prepaid", "api-key", "scoped-keys", "openapi", "llms-txt", "python", "cli", "agent-skill", "serverless", "spot", "status-page", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 62.6, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 297, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 629, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 57, "maintenance": 81, "payments": 20, "reliability": 65, "schema": 78, "security": 72, "transparency": 62 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "API keys take 11 permission categories and per-endpoint constraints on resource IDs, and can be reset or deleted at once", "Public OpenAPI 3.1 file with 89 operations, llms.txt and Markdown docs pages", "MIT CLI and Python SDK, v1.8.3 on 2 October 2026, with 12 tagged releases since 27 July 2026", "Per-second billing, with serverless workers charged at the same rates as rented instances", "Vulnerability disclosure policy with safe harbour and triage within 5 business days, and an account audit log from the CLI" ], "weaknesses": [ "No SLA. The terms say availability is not guaranteed and the service can change without notice", "Rate-limit thresholds are unpublished and 429 responses carry no `Retry-After` header", "No free tier. Credit is prepaid with a $5 minimum deposit after a browser signup and email verification", "Hosts are independent. The security FAQ says individual hosts may have less formal security than Secure Cloud data centres", "The terms of 1 September 2026 prohibit scripts and automated access to the services without a separate written agreement, which conflicts with the public API" ], "agentNotes": [ "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", "Pass `--raw` on every CLI command for JSON output, and `-y` on `vastai destroy instance`, which otherwise waits for a confirmation prompt", "Register an SSH key with `vastai create ssh-key` before creating an instance, or the host is unreachable", "Destroy instances when finished. A stopped instance still bills storage, and a zero balance without a saved card leads to deletion", "Back off on HTTP 429 yourself when calling REST directly. The CLI retries 429 three times from 0.15 seconds", "Filter searches with `verified=true` or the Secure Cloud option for sensitive data, and set a `dph_total` price cap" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 62.6 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 57, "maintenance": 81, "payments": 20, "reliability": 65, "schema": 78, "security": 72, "transparency": 45 }, "provenanceScore": 79 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install vastai", "http": "curl -s -H \"Authorization: Bearer $VAST_API_KEY\" \\\n \"https://console.vast.ai/api/v0/users/current/\"", "claudeCode": "/plugin marketplace add vast-ai/vast-claude-plugin\n/plugin install vastai" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/compute.gpu", "tool": "https://letme.dev/vast-ai" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Vast.ai Inc.", "domain": "vast.ai", "domainRegistered": "2017-12-16", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://vast.ai/terms", "privacy": "https://vast.ai/privacy", "statusPage": "https://status.vast.ai", "changelog": "https://github.com/vast-ai/vast-cli/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The Terms of Use Agreement, version date 1 September 2026, names Vast.ai Inc. and its affiliates, covers the website and the rental service, and is governed by California law with JAMS arbitration in the Los Angeles area.", "The privacy policy, version date 18 June 2025, names Vast.ai Inc. and a Privacy Officer at contact@vast.ai. It is written for users of the website and contains an unfilled `[INSERT HYPERLINK]` placeholder.", "A Data Processing Agreement at vast.ai/data-processing-agreement forms part of the terms, with standard contractual clauses and five named sub-processors (Stripe, Google, Meta, Twitter, Microsoft).", "The REST API answers at console.vast.ai and serverless routing at run.vast.ai, both on the vendor's domain. Rented machines belong to independent hosts.", "vast.ai/.well-known/security.txt returns 404. A vulnerability disclosure policy dated 23 July 2025 at vast.ai/vulnerability-disclosure-policy sends reports to security@vast.ai.", "No API changelog was found in the docs index. The changelog link is the CLI and SDK repository's release list, which has no CHANGELOG file.", "RDAP for vast.ai gives a registration date of 2017-12-16." ], "score": 79 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.json", "live": { "slug": "vast-ai", "probe": { "target": "https://console.vast.ai/api/v0", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-08T19:09:01.295456127Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 336, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 336, "p95ms24h": 444, "samples24h": 19, "samples30d": 19, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 19, "ok": 19 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.vast.ai", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T17:51:18.187311529Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.vast.ai/guides/instances/pricing.md", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:19:43.22968168Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "7cd305f9206a" }, { "url": "https://vast.ai/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:25:30.293684318Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "afe890f5aa20" }, { "url": "https://vast.ai/terms", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:25:32.570996649Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "652ca94c3dd7" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-08T19:09:01.295456127Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Lambda", "b": "Vast.ai Inc.", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1", "b": "https://console.vast.ai/api/v0", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "$9.86 per GPU-hour", "b": "not published", "name": "Price for compute gpu" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "none", "b": "Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2026-10-02", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2025-08-01", "b": "2026-09-01", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-01-01", "b": "2025-06-18", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "223 stars, 33k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Lambda Cloud or Vast.ai?" }, { "answer": "Both need an API key.", "question": "Do Lambda Cloud and Vast.ai need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Lambda Cloud has a hosted endpoint at https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1 and Vast.ai at https://console.vast.ai/api/v0.", "question": "Can an agent call Lambda Cloud and Vast.ai without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Agent ergonomics, 63 against 57" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agents or pipelines that need a whole GPU machine with SSH for hours, such as training or batch jobs, and will manage the lifecycle themselves.", "slug": "lambda", "watchFor": "No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 65 against 50", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 69", "Security \u0026 auth, 72 against 60", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 81 against 5" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "vast-ai", "watchFor": "No SLA. The terms say availability is not guaranteed and the service can change without notice" } ], "job": { "capability": "compute.gpu", "name": "Compute gpu" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-lambda.json", "title": "Baseten vs Lambda Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-lambda" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Baseten vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-lambda.json", "title": "Beam vs Lambda Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-lambda" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Beam vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-lambda.json", "title": "Cerebrium vs Lambda Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-lambda" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Cerebrium vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-lambda.json", "title": "CoreWeave vs Lambda Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-lambda" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "CoreWeave vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-lambda.json", "title": "Koyeb vs Lambda Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-lambda" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Koyeb vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-modal.json", "title": "Lambda Cloud vs Modal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-modal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-northflank.json", "title": "Lambda Cloud vs Northflank", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-northflank" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-replicate-deploy.json", "title": "Lambda Cloud vs Replicate Deployments", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-replicate-deploy" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-runpod.json", "title": "Lambda Cloud vs Runpod", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-runpod" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Modal vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Northflank vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/replicate-deploy-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Replicate Deployments vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/replicate-deploy-vs-vast-ai" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-vast-ai.json", "title": "Runpod vs Vast.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-vast-ai" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 15, "edge": "vast-ai", "key": "reliability", "lambda": 50, "name": "Reliability", "vast-ai": 65, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 9, "edge": "vast-ai", "key": "schema", "lambda": 69, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "vast-ai": 78, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 6, "edge": "lambda", "key": "ergonomics", "lambda": 63, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "vast-ai": 57, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 12, "edge": "vast-ai", "key": "security", "lambda": 60, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "vast-ai": 72, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "payments", "lambda": 20, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "vast-ai": 20, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 76, "edge": "vast-ai", "key": "maintenance", "lambda": 5, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "vast-ai": 81, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 4, "edge": "vast-ai", "key": "transparency", "lambda": 58, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "vast-ai": 62, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics. Both do compute gpu.", "verdicts": { "lambda": "H100 SXM at $3.99 and B200 at $6.69 an hour with per-minute billing. No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated.", "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." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.min.md" }, "markdown": "Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics. Both do compute gpu.\n\n- Lambda Cloud: grade D, 50/100, rank #523 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lambda.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lambda.json\n- Vast.ai: grade B, 62.6/100, rank #297 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vast-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Lambda Cloud (D)\n\nGood for: Agents or pipelines that need a whole GPU machine with SSH for hours, such as training or batch jobs, and will manage the lifecycle themselves.\n\nAhead on:\n- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 57\n\nWatch for: No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated\n\n### Vast.ai (B)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 65 against 50\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 69\n- Security \u0026 auth, 72 against 60\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 81 against 5\n\nWatch for: No SLA. The terms say availability is not guaranteed and the service can change without notice\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Lambda Cloud | Vast.ai | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 65 | Vast.ai +15 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 78 | Vast.ai +9 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 57 | Lambda Cloud +6 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 72 | Vast.ai +12 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 20 | even |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 5 | 81 | Vast.ai +76 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 62 | Vast.ai +4 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **50 · D** | **62.6 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Lambda Cloud | Vast.ai |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Lambda | Vast.ai Inc. |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1` | `https://console.vast.ai/api/v0` |\n| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |\n| Price for compute gpu | $9.86 per GPU-hour | not published |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | Proprietary service under Vast.ai's Terms of Use Agreement. The `vastai` CLI and Python SDK on GitHub are MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | none | 2026-10-02 |\n| Terms last updated | 2025-08-01 | 2026-09-01 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-01 | 2025-06-18 |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |\n| Popularity | none | 223 stars, 33k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Lambda Cloud.** H100 SXM at $3.99 and B200 at $6.69 an hour with per-minute billing. No scale to zero, autoscaling or endpoints; an idle VM bills until terminated.\n\n**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.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Lambda Cloud\n\n1. Call `GET /instance-types` first and read `regions_with_capacity_available` before trying to launch\n2. Space launch calls 12 seconds apart; a sixth in a minute returns 429 with `global/rate-limited`\n3. Branch on the error `code`, not the `message` or `suggestion`, which Lambda says may change\n4. List instances before retrying a failed launch, since there's no idempotency key and a retry can start a second machine\n5. Terminate the instance in a `finally` block; billing runs by the minute until you do\n\n### Vast.ai\n\n1. 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\n2. Pass `--raw` on every CLI command for JSON output, and `-y` on `vastai destroy instance`, which otherwise waits for a confirmation prompt\n3. Register an SSH key with `vastai create ssh-key` before creating an instance, or the host is unreachable\n4. Destroy instances when finished. A stopped instance still bills storage, and a zero balance without a saved card leads to deletion\n5. Back off on HTTP 429 yourself when calling REST directly. The CLI retries 429 three times from 0.15 seconds\n6. Filter searches with `verified=true` or the Secure Cloud option for sensitive data, and set a `dph_total` price cap\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Lambda Cloud or Vast.ai?\n\nVast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics.\n\n### Do Lambda Cloud and Vast.ai need an API key?\n\nBoth need an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call Lambda Cloud and Vast.ai without installing anything?\n\nYes. Lambda Cloud has a hosted endpoint at https://cloud.lambda.ai/api/v1 and Vast.ai at https://console.vast.ai/api/v0.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"lambda\", \"b\": \"vast-ai\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare lambda vast-ai`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lambda.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vast-ai.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Lambda Cloud or Vast.ai\n\n- [Baseten vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-lambda.md)\n- [Baseten vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baseten-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Beam vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-lambda.md)\n- [Beam vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/beam-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Cerebrium vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-lambda.md)\n- [Cerebrium vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cerebrium-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [CoreWeave vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-lambda.md)\n- [CoreWeave vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coreweave-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Koyeb vs Lambda Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-lambda.md)\n- [Koyeb vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koyeb-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Lambda Cloud vs Modal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-modal.md)\n- [Lambda Cloud vs Northflank](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-northflank.md)\n- [Lambda Cloud vs Replicate Deployments](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-replicate-deploy.md)\n- [Lambda Cloud vs Runpod](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-runpod.md)\n- [Modal vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Northflank vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/northflank-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Replicate Deployments vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/replicate-deploy-vs-vast-ai.md)\n- [Runpod vs Vast.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-vast-ai.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-08", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Lambda Cloud vs Vast.ai", "url": "" } ], "description": "Vast.ai scores 62.6 (B) on agent readiness against Lambda Cloud's 50 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lambda Cloud leads on agent ergonomics. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Lambda Cloud D 50", "Vast.ai B 62.6", "scores" ], "h1": "Lambda Cloud vs Vast.ai", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-lambda-vs-vast-ai.png", "path": "/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Lambda Cloud vs Vast.ai for AI agents, D 50 vs B 62.6", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-08", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lambda-vs-vast-ai" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2100, "slim": 630 }, "version": 1 }