Both are marketplaces where you rent a GPU from a host by the hour, and both let ordinary owners earn from their cards. Vast.ai is the large, established one. RentGPUPower is younger and built around three ideas: you pay only for the time a machine actually delivers, anyone can host from an ordinary PC in one line, and several machines can be rented together as one cluster, self-serve.
The facts about Vast.ai below come from its own website and documentation, read in October 2026; the sources are listed at the end. Prices on both marketplaces are set by hosts and change every day, so compare live prices rather than any number written in an article.
At a glance
| RentGPUPower | Vast.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can host | Anyone: a one-line app for Windows, macOS (processor only) or Linux, which installs its own Docker sandbox | Hosts set up Ubuntu, with a separate account and open ports |
| What the platform keeps | 10% of the price; the host keeps 90%, shown before they go online | Not stated in its host docs; its own article says prices run about 25% above what hosts earn |
| Unused time | Held in escrow; whatever is not delivered comes back to your balance automatically | No refunds once credits are spent |
| Cheaper interruptible rentals | Not yet | Yes — bids, "50%+ cheaper" |
| Speed shown per machine | An estimate from the card's model | DLPerf benchmark per machine, measured network and disk speeds |
| Files that survive the rental | My Drive (2 GB) between rentals; a rental's own disk is wiped when it ends | Volumes tied to the machine; stopping keeps the disk |
| Several machines together | Self-serve: 2 to 64 machines from any hosts, on one private network | Multi-node through sales |
| API | OpenAI-compatible model API that starts a model for you, serverless jobs, batches of 100,000 tasks | Serverless workers that scale |
| Host payouts | Bank account from $20.00, PayPal from $1.00, Solana from $2.00 | Weekly, $20 minimum, Wise, PayPal or Stripe — no bank transfers |
| Languages | English and French | English |
Where Vast.ai is stronger
- Choice, right now. Vast.ai has far more machines and GPU models online. RentGPUPower is a young marketplace: on some cards there may be none free at a given moment.
- Interruptible bids. For batch work that can be stopped and resumed, bidding on idle machines is often half the price.
- Measured machines. Every Vast.ai listing carries its DLPerf benchmark and measured internet and disk speeds; here a listing shows the card the host's app detected and a speed estimate for that model.
- Datacenter tier and compliance. Vast.ai sells a Secure Cloud tier on certified datacenters and reports SOC 2 Type I. RentGPUPower has neither yet.
- Disks that stay. A stopped Vast.ai instance keeps its disk (restarting can fail if someone else took the GPU meanwhile). Here, keep what matters in My Drive.
Where RentGPUPower is different
- You pay for delivered time, not for promises. Your payment waits in escrow and reaches the host only as the machine works. If it stops early, the rest comes back to your balance by itself — no ticket, no dispute.
- Hosting on the PC you already have. One line installs the app on Windows, macOS or Linux; it finds the card, sets up the sandbox that keeps renters away from your files, suggests a price and shows what you keep. No Ubuntu, no port forwarding.
- A transparent split. The fee is 10%, and the host's share is on every price before anything is rented.
- Clusters without a sales call. Ask for 4 or 16 machines on the cluster page: the cheapest free ones are found across hosts, start together, and reach each other as
node1,node2, … with the variables PyTorch's torchrun reads. The network runs through RentGPUPower — good for coordinating work and moderate data, not an InfiniBand fabric. - One-click AI. Pick what you want to do — chat with an open model, a notebook, a model server — and a GPU that fits is chosen, started and opened for you.
- In French too, every page and email.
Which should you pick?
Vast.ai if you want the widest choice of machines today, interruptible pricing for long batch jobs, measured benchmarks to sort by, or a certified datacenter tier.
RentGPUPower if you want automatic refunds for time that was not delivered, a self-serve cluster across hosts, one-click AI apps, or to earn with a gaming PC on Windows or a Mac without setting up a Linux server.
Nothing stops you from using both: a renter who knows Vast.ai already knows how to use their own Docker image and SSH here.
Moving from Vast.ai
- Your image: paste the same Docker image name at checkout; a start command runs when the machine is ready.
- SSH and VS Code: the
gpurentcommand line sets up keys and tunnels. - API work: the developer pages cover jobs, batches and the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with Python and JavaScript clients.
FAQ
Is RentGPUPower cheaper than Vast.ai?
It depends on the card and the hour — hosts set prices on both. The pricing page lists the typical price of every card here next to a typical cloud price, and the marketplace shows what is online now. What is cheaper by design here is what you do not use: it comes back to you.
Can I host on Windows?
On RentGPUPower, yes: the app runs on Windows, macOS (it rents out the processor) and Linux, and installs Docker for you. Vast.ai's host setup asks for Ubuntu.
Does Vast.ai refund unused credits?
Its terms say no refunds once credits are spent. On RentGPUPower, time a machine did not deliver is refunded to your balance automatically.
Does RentGPUPower have InfiniBand clusters?
No. Machines in a cluster share a private network through RentGPUPower — right for PyTorch, Ray or Dask coordination and moderate data, not for the bandwidth of a datacenter interconnect. Choosing "all in one region" keeps them closer.
Sources
Read on 11 October 2026: Vast.ai volumes, Vast.ai host payments, vast.ai. Vast.ai is a trademark of its owner; this comparison is ours and is not endorsed by them. Something out of date? Tell us from the help page.