What is the difference between Akash Network and Salad Cloud?

Akash Network and Salad Cloud are both cloud GPU providers offering different pricing models, features, and GPU availability. Use our comparison tool to see real-time pricing and feature differences.

Which is cheaper: Akash Network or Salad Cloud?

Pricing varies by GPU model and usage requirements. Check our real-time comparison table to find the best deals for your specific needs.

Can I switch between Akash Network and Salad Cloud?

Yes, both providers offer flexible cloud GPU services. However, consider factors like data transfer costs, setup time, and specific features when switching between providers.

How many GPU models are available for comparison?

We track pricing for 47 different GPU models across both Akash Network and Salad Cloud, with 0 models available from both providers.

Akash Network vs Salad Cloud

Compare GPU pricing between Akash Network and Salad Cloud. Find the best rates for AI training, inference, and ML workloads.

Akash Network

Provider 1

GPUs Available

Visit Website

Salad Cloud

Provider 2

GPUs Available

Visit Website

Comparison Overview

Total GPU Models

Akash Network GPUs

Salad Cloud GPUs

Direct Comparisons

Average Price Difference: $0.15/hour between comparable GPUs

GPU Pricing Comparison

Total GPUs: 47Both available: 7Akash Network: 17Salad Cloud: 37

Showing 15 of 47 GPUs

Last updated: 10/6/2026, 6:24:43 PM

GPU Model ↑	Akash Network Price	Salad Cloud Price	Price Diff ↕	Sources
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network	$1.33/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network $1.33/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
B200 180GB VRAM • Akash Network	$5.00/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
B200 180GB VRAM • Akash Network $5.00/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
GTX 1050 Ti 4GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.01/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1050 Ti 4GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.01/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1060 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1060 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1070 Ti 8GB VRAM • Akash Network	$0.14/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
GTX 1070 Ti 8GB VRAM • Akash Network $0.14/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
GTX 1650 4GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.01/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1650 4GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.01/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1660 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1660 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network	$2.72/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network $2.72/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Akash Network	$6.00/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Akash Network $6.00/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
RTX 2060 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2060 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2070 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2070 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2080 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.05/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2080 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.05/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.06/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.06/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 3050 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.03/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 3050 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.03/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API

A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network	$1.33/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
A100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network $1.33/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
B200 180GB VRAM • Akash Network	$5.00/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
B200 180GB VRAM • Akash Network $5.00/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
GTX 1050 Ti 4GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.01/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1050 Ti 4GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.01/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1060 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1060 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1070 Ti 8GB VRAM • Akash Network	$0.14/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
GTX 1070 Ti 8GB VRAM • Akash Network $0.14/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
GTX 1650 4GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.01/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1650 4GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.01/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1660 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1660 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network	$2.72/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
H100 SXM 80GB VRAM • Akash Network $2.72/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Akash Network	$6.00/hr★ Best	Not Available	—	Akash Network
HGX B300 288GB VRAM • Akash Network $6.00/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Not Available Akash Network
RTX 2060 6GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2060 6GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2070 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.02/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2070 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.02/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2080 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.05/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2080 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.05/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.06/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.06/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API
RTX 3050 8GB VRAM • Salad Cloud	Not Available	$0.03/hr★ Best	—	Salad API
RTX 3050 8GB VRAM • Not Available Salad Cloud $0.03/hour Updated: 10/6/2026 ★Best Price Salad API

Features Comparison

Akash Network

Automated Bidding
Independent infrastructure providers automatically submit competitive bids in real time for workload requests.
No Refactoring Required
Applications running in containers can be directly migrated to the Akash platform without code changes.
1-Click Templates
Pre-configured environments for popular AI models can be launched quickly.
Global Access to Hardware
Enterprise-grade GPUs and consumer-grade GPUs are accessible for various compute needs.
Operational Autonomy
Users maintain control over network routing and data residency.

Salad Cloud

Community Cloud
On-demand pool of idle consumer GPUs with nodes in 190+ countries, deployed onto through Salad Container Engine.
Salad Container Engine
Managed orchestration that schedules Docker containers onto nodes it does not control, isolates them behind a hypervisor, streams logs, and reallocates work when a node disappears.
Priority Tiers
High, Medium, Low, and Lowest tiers price the same GPU class differently so a workload can trade preemption risk for cost; High is never preempted by other workloads.
Salad Dedicated
Reserved bare metal and virtual machines on contract, starting with RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, quoted per allocation and term.
Private Cloud
Salad's orchestration stack licensed per deployment on hardware you already own, pooling idle workstation and server GPUs into a private OpenAI-compatible token service.
Managed APIs and Tooling
AI Gateway (an OpenAI-compatible endpoint for open-weight models, in closed beta), Transcription API, Recipes deployment templates, S4 temporary storage, Gateway Service residential IPs, and a Virtual Kubelet for Kubernetes.

Pros & Cons

Akash Network

Advantages

Decentralized infrastructure reduces dependency on single providers.
Potential for lower costs compared to traditional cloud providers.
Supports a wide variety of containerized applications.

Considerations

Limited awareness compared to larger cloud providers.
Potential complexity in understanding the decentralized model for new users.

Salad Cloud

Advantages

Aggregating idle consumer hardware gives some of the lowest published per-GPU-hour rates available
Per-second billing with no contracts or minimums; allocation, image download, and cold start are not billed
vCPU and RAM are included with every GPU class at no additional charge
Four priority tiers make interruptibility an explicit, priced choice per container group

Considerations

On-demand catalog is consumer RTX GPUs only — data center accelerators are not offered outside the contracted Dedicated product
Published GPU classes top out at 32 GB of VRAM, limiting the size of a model that fits on a single GPU
Nodes are individually owned machines that can disconnect at any time, so workloads must be stateless or retryable

Compute Services

Akash Network

Salad Cloud

Salad Container Engine on Community Cloud

On-demand container orchestration across the distributed pool of idle consumer GPUs, with more than 40 GPU classes selectable by priority tier.

Salad Dedicated

Reserved bare metal and virtual machines on contract, separate from the on-demand community pool.

CPU-only container groups

Container groups with no GPU attached, billed per vCPU-hour and per GB of RAM per hour, running at the Lowest priority tier.

Pricing Options

Akash Network

Salad Cloud

Per-second on-demand billing

Published per-GPU-hour rates billed by the second for the time each replica spends running; allocation, image download, and cold start are not charged, and vCPU and RAM are included.

Priority tiers

High, Medium, Low, and Lowest tiers price each GPU class differently - lower tiers cost less and are more interruptible, with Lowest intended for retryable batch work.

CPU-only container groups

Billed per vCPU-hour plus per GB of RAM per hour for container groups that need no GPU.

Volume discounts

Large deployments, long-running jobs, and committed spend are priced below list by sales.

Salad Dedicated contracts

Reserved bare metal and virtual machines quoted separately per allocation and term.

Private Cloud licensing

Licensed per deployment to run the orchestration stack on hardware you already own.

Getting Started

Akash Network

Get Started

1
Sign Up
Create an account on the Akash console.
2
Choose a Deployment Method
Select to launch an AI workload or deploy a container.
3
Configure Resources
Specify required resources such as GPUs, memory, and region.
4
Deploy
Finalize deployment and authorize the request.

Salad Cloud

Get Started

1
Create a SaladCloud account
Sign up at portal.salad.com to reach the dashboard, API keys, and deployment tools.
2
Pick a GPU class and priority tier
Compare published per-GPU-hour rates and live availability on the pricing page, then choose the tier that matches how interruptible the workload is.
3
Deploy a container group
Supply a Docker image, CPU/memory/GPU resources, and a replica count through the portal or the public API; Recipes provide ready-made templates for popular open models.
4
Monitor and scale
Track replicas in the portal and adjust GPU class, priority, or replica count; the container engine reallocates work as nodes join and leave the network.
5
Talk to sales for reserved or volume capacity
Large deployments, committed spend, and Salad Dedicated allocations are quoted directly rather than bought self-service.

Support & Global Availability

Akash Network

Global Regions

Global availability for GPU resources

Support

Documentation available online; support requests can be initiated through the platform.

Salad Cloud

Global Regions

Nodes in 190+ countries across the distributed network; capacity is chosen by GPU class and priority tier rather than by selectable region, and availability varies by class.

Support

Documentation at docs.salad.com, a developer hub and Recipes library, status page at cloud-status.salad.com, Trust Center, Discord and GitHub communities, and direct engineering and sales contact for volume and enterprise deployments.