nafnaf vs Vast.ai: GPU rental costs, without the guesswork

Is nafnaf cheaper than Vast.ai?

For some offers, substantially. Not for every GPU. On 13 October 2026, nafnaf listed a 96 GB RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q at $0.42 per GPU-hour. A sampled Vast offer for that GPU variant was $1.00. That is a 58% reduction in compute price, not a claim of identical machines or a platform-wide discount. Our RTX 4090 example went the other way: Vast was cheaper.

Both are GPU marketplaces. Compare the specific offer your workload can use, then add storage, transfer, and time to completion. This article is written by nafnaf, with competitor sources and the assumptions exposed.

Two GPU models, different results

Sources: nafnaf public offers and Vast's offer-search API, sampled with one GPU, on-demand, rentable, not rented, and verified filters. Vast offer IDs were 40230781 and 53867753. These are examples returned during research, not guaranteed inventory or claims that we found the cheapest offer worldwide.

The Max-Q comparison matches the GPU variant, but not the rest of the server: the sampled nafnaf offer defaulted to 32 GiB container RAM and eight shared vCPUs; the Vast machine reported roughly 126 GiB RAM and 16 effective CPU cores. Location, CPU performance, network, and reliability history differ. An RTX A6000, RTX 6000 Ada, or non-Max-Q Blackwell is not a substitute for an exact SKU comparison.

The calculation is (1.00 - 0.42) / 1.00 = 58%. It describes the compute rates above, not benchmarked speed, the complete bill, or a permanent saving. Always inspect the current GPU offers before booking.

Price the job, not just the GPU

Use this model: compute hours + allocated storage over time + metered transfer. Vast documents separate host-dependent prices for all three; stopping compute does not remove the storage bill. Bandwidth can explain why the balance falls faster than an hourly-price label suggests. Vast billing documentation.

For nafnaf's sampled $0.42 offer, assume ten running hours, 100 GB allocated for those same ten hours, 50 GB downloaded to the host, and 10 GB uploaded from it. The posted rates were $0.293333/GB-month, $0.002604167/GB download, and $0.00390625/GB upload. Using the offer's 30-day storage month:

• Compute: 10 × $0.42 = $4.20.
• Storage: 100 × $0.293333 × 10 / 720 ≈ $0.4074.
• Transfer: 50 × $0.002604167 + 10 × $0.00390625 ≈ $0.1693.
• Estimated usage total: $4.78, before any applicable taxes.

This assumes no extra storage retention or transfer. On nafnaf, pausing retains billable storage; export results and delete the instance when finished. A lower hourly GPU rate can lose its advantage if slower execution or extra data movement increases the rest of the bill.

Do not add another 5% at checkout

For new GPU rentals, providers set the rate they receive and nafnaf adds a 5% consumer fee. A $1.00 provider rate means $1.00 for the provider, $0.05 for nafnaf, and a $1.05 renter total. Marketplace prices already include that fee; do not add it again. This applies to compute, storage, and metered transfer, while managed endpoints have a separate pricing policy.

The 13 October price examples above are historical renter totals, recorded before this fee-basis change. Existing bookings retain their accepted rates and fee basis; current offers may differ.

Do not infer a universal renter discount from competing commission percentages. Vast announced a move from deducted hosting fees to a renter-surcharge model in its June 2024 update. Compare the final consumer quotes, not a historical fee slogan or a host's net earnings.

When each marketplace makes sense

Vast is worth checking when selection, geography, or a different rental model matters. Its pricing overview covers on-demand, reserved, interruptible, and serverless use. Interruptible capacity can suit checkpointed work; it should not be presented as equivalent to a non-interruptible quote.

nafnaf is worth checking when an available host fits your memory and location requirements at a good total price, or when you want a bounded agent workflow. The marketplace exposes container limits, measured network speeds, and observed host uptime. A short period at 100% is not a long-term availability guarantee. A Swiss platform also does not mean every provider's hardware is in Switzerland.

Let an agent operate inside a budget

nafnaf supports expiring, scoped agent credentials, explicit rental duration and price limits, idempotent agent bookings, and a local MCP adapter. An owner funds the account and grants authority; software can then operate within that grant. Autonomous card or crypto top-ups are not part of this flow. See our agent access guide.

Vast also exposes programmatic offer discovery and rental tools; having an API is not unique. Evaluate permission boundaries, retry behavior, and teardown just as carefully as hourly cost. An unattended instance that nobody releases is expensive on any marketplace.

Common questions

Is nafnaf always 20% cheaper than Vast?

No. The observed Max-Q example was 58% cheaper for compute, while the sampled Vast RTX 4090 was cheaper than nafnaf's. Recalculate for your actual offer and workload.

Can I compare GPU-hour prices with inference token prices?

Not directly. A GPU rental pays for allocated hardware; a token-priced API pays for model usage. Compare the same model, quality, throughput, and total task cost. For intermittent text requests, inspect nafnaf inference before renting an entire GPU.