# Runpod vs Verda

> Verda scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against Runpod's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-verda
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-verda.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-verda.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runpod-vs-verda.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

Verda scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against Runpod's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do compute gpu.

- Runpod: grade D, 53.5/100, rank #629 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runpod.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runpod.json
- Verda: grade B, 62.3/100, rank #396 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/verda.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/verda.json

## Which one, for what

### Runpod (D)

Good for: Cost-sensitive inference and batch work that wants the widest GPU choice, from consumer cards to B300, with an MCP control plane.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Verda loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Data-centre outages of 6 to 24 hours in each of July, August and September 2026

### Verda (B)

Good for: Agents that rent whole GPU machines or clusters in Finland for training or batch work, or deploy scale-to-zero container endpoints, and that can run a local CLI for MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 35
- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 47
- Security & auth, 68 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 63

Watch for: No free tier. Accounts are prepaid, and instances are discontinued and volumes deleted when the balance reaches zero


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Runpod | Verda | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 67 | Verda +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 82 | Verda +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 63 | Verda +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 68 | Verda +8 |
| 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) | 82 | 83 | Verda +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 76 | Verda +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **53.5 · D** | **62.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Runpod | Verda |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Runpod | Verda |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.runpod.ai/v2` | `https://api.verda.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Verda's Terms of Service. The CLI, the Python SDK and the Go SDK on GitHub are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 18 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-24 | 2025-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-07 | no date given |
| 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 | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 314 stars, 22k npm/wk, 147k PyPI/wk | 10k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Runpod.** Per-second billing across more than a dozen serverless GPU classes, H100 at $4.79 and A100 80 GB at $2.72 an hour. Data-centre outages of 6 to 24 hours in each of July, August and September 2026.

**Verda.** The REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document, a dated changelog, published rate limits with `Retry-After`, and an audit log endpoint. The CLI's MCP server refuses billed or destructive calls without `confirm: true`. Access needs a browser signup and a prepaid balance, credentials carry one scope, and instance creation has no idempotency key.

## Before you call either

### Runpod

1. Create a Restricted or Read Only key per endpoint for the agent, not an All key
2. Use REST v2 at api.runpod.io/v2 with a Bearer header; avoid GraphQL, which puts the key in the URL
3. Fetch `/run` results within 30 minutes and `/runsync` results within 1 minute, or they're gone
4. Call `/retry` on a failed job ID rather than submitting a duplicate job
5. Check `/health` before relying on an endpoint idle for a week, since max workers drop to 0

### Verda

1. Exchange the client ID and secret at `POST /v1/oauth2/token`, then send the access token as a Bearer header. It expires after 3,600 seconds, so refresh it.
2. Send `location_code` on every create call. Requests without it have returned 400 since March 2026.
3. Call `GET /v1/instance-availability` before launching. `POST /v1/instances` returns 503 `service_unavailable` when the location has no capacity.
4. List instances before retrying a failed launch, because create has no idempotency key.
5. Use the `delete` action to stop charges. `shutdown` keeps billing, and deleted volumes stay recoverable for 96 hours unless `delete_permanently` is set.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Runpod or Verda?

Verda scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against Runpod's 53.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Runpod and Verda need an API key?

Runpod takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Verda uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Runpod and Verda without installing anything?

Yes. Runpod has a hosted endpoint at https://api.runpod.ai/v2 and Verda at https://api.verda.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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