A graphics card spends most of its life waiting: while you work, sleep or travel, it does nothing. On RentGPUPower, people who need GPU time — to run AI models, render or train — rent it from you by the hour, and you keep 90% of what they pay. Here is how it works, and what you can realistically expect.
How hosting works, step by step
- Install the app with one line. On the download page, pick Windows, macOS or Linux and paste the line it shows into PowerShell or Terminal. It installs the RentGPUPower app and a shortcut, and fetches anything that is missing.
- Sign in. The app finds your GPU on its own and lists it — you never type in a model name or a memory size.
- Let it set up the sandbox. Renters' code runs in Docker, sealed off from your files. On Windows and Mac the app installs Docker Desktop itself (about a 600 MB download and a permission prompt; Windows sometimes wants a restart). On Linux the installer sets Docker up.
- Set your price. The app suggests one for your card. Keep it or change it any time; a rental that is already booked keeps the price it was booked at.
- Go online. From then on, the app shows what your machine is doing and what it has earned.
You can install it on several computers and sign in with the same account: all their GPUs show up together.
Three ways a machine can earn
You choose for each machine, in the app or on its page on the site, and you can change your mind any time:
- Both — the default, and the one we recommend. People can rent the whole machine like their own computer; while nobody does, it takes work from the cluster API — jobs and batches from many customers, paid per second.
- Rentals only — one person at a time rents the whole machine by the hour.
- Cluster API only — it is never rented out on its own; it only takes work from the API.
The cluster API only sends work to machines that run the Docker sandbox. Which work runs where is handled for you: the marketplace routes it, checks that it is delivered, and pays you for what your machine does.
What common cards earn
The price renters pay here today, what you keep after the platform fee of 10%, and the ceiling: what the card would make if it were rented around the clock.
| Card | Renters pay per hour | You keep per hour | 24-hour ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 (12 GB) | $0.14 | $0.12 | $2.88 |
| RTX 3090 (24 GB) | $0.31 | $0.27 | $6.48 |
| RTX 4070 (12 GB) | $0.21 | $0.18 | $4.32 |
| RTX 4080 (16 GB) | $0.35 | $0.31 | $7.44 |
| RTX 4090 (24 GB) | $0.49 | $0.44 | $10.56 |
| RTX 5090 (32 GB) | $0.63 | $0.56 | $13.44 |
| RTX A6000 (48 GB) | $0.56 | $0.50 | $12.00 |
| A100 (80 GB) | $1.05 | $0.94 | $22.56 |
Prices move with what hosts set, and yours is yours to choose. The pricing page lists every card.
Treat the 24-hour figure as a ceiling, not a promise. You are paid only for the hours your machine is actually rented and delivers, and how many that is depends on demand for your card, your price and how reliably it stays online.
The honest costs
- Electricity is yours. A card working flat out draws close to its rated power — about 350 W for an RTX 3090, 450 W for an RTX 4090 — plus the rest of the PC. Multiply the kilowatts by your rate per kWh to see what a rented hour costs you, and set your price above it.
- Your internet connection is used while someone rents: renters download models and data.
- You are paid for delivered time. Renters pay up front, and the money is held in escrow and released to you as your machine works. If it goes offline in the middle of a rental, the renter gets the rest back, and the reliability score shown on your listing goes down.
Getting paid
Your earnings collect in your balance; the app's Earnings tab shows what is still in escrow and every withdrawal. Cash out to:
- your bank, through Stripe, from $20.00;
- PayPal, from $1.00;
- crypto (Solana) to your own wallet, from $2.00.
The platform fee is 10% of what renters pay, so you keep 90%. A payout service's own fee for sending the money, where it charges one, comes out of the withdrawal.
FAQ
How much can an RTX 4090 earn?
About $0.44 for every hour it is rented at today's typical price — at most $10.56 a day if it were rented around the clock. What you actually earn depends on how many hours it is rented.
Can I still play games on my PC?
Yes. Pause your listing a little before you want the card back: nobody new can book it, and a rental already running finishes. Going offline in the middle of a rental ends it early — you lose the rest of its pay, and your reliability score notes it.
Can I earn with a Mac?
A Mac can rent out its processor, not its graphics: Docker on macOS gives containers no access to any GPU. The app lists it as a CPU machine, priced by its cores, which usually earns far less than a graphics card. The download page has a one-second check that tells you whether your device can earn.
Is it safe to let strangers use my GPU?
Renters' code runs in a Docker sandbox with no access to your files, with its own network and limits on memory and disk. The details — and the honest limits — are in Is it safe to rent out my GPU?