What is the difference between Beam and SwissGPU?

Beam and SwissGPU 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: Beam or SwissGPU?

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 Beam and SwissGPU?

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 7 different GPU models across both Beam and SwissGPU, with 0 models available from both providers.

Beam vs SwissGPU

Compare GPU pricing between Beam and SwissGPU. Find the best rates for AI training, inference, and ML workloads.

Beam

Provider 1

GPUs Available

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SwissGPU

Provider 2

GPUs Available

Visit Website

Comparison Overview

Total GPU Models

Beam GPUs

SwissGPU GPUs

Direct Comparisons

Average Price Difference: $0.34/hour between comparable GPUs

GPU Pricing Comparison

Total GPUs: 7Both available: 2Beam: 2SwissGPU: 7

Showing 7 of 7 GPUs

Last updated: 11/6/2026, 11:57:58 PM

GPU Model ↑	Beam Price	SwissGPU Price	Price Diff ↕	Sources
RTX 3090 24GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.31/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 3090 24GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.31/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 4080 16GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.31/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 4080 16GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.31/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 4090 24GB VRAM • BeamSwissGPU	$0.69/hr	$0.49/hr★ Best	↑+$0.20(+41.3%)	Beam SwissGPU
RTX 4090 24GB VRAM • Beam $0.69/hour Updated: 11/4/2026 SwissGPU $0.49/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price Price Difference:↑+$0.20(+41.3%) Beam SwissGPU
RTX 5080 16GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.37/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 5080 16GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.37/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 5090 32GB VRAM • BeamSwissGPU	$1.09/hr	$0.61/hr★ Best	↑+$0.48(+78.4%)	Beam SwissGPU
RTX 5090 32GB VRAM • Beam $1.09/hour Updated: 11/4/2026 SwissGPU $0.61/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price Price Difference:↑+$0.48(+78.4%) Beam SwissGPU
RTX 6000 Ada 48GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$1.83/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 6000 Ada 48GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $1.83/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX PRO 6000 96GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$2.45/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX PRO 6000 96GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $2.45/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU

RTX 3090 24GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.31/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 3090 24GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.31/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 4080 16GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.31/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 4080 16GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.31/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 4090 24GB VRAM • BeamSwissGPU	$0.69/hr	$0.49/hr★ Best	↑+$0.20(+41.3%)	Beam SwissGPU
RTX 4090 24GB VRAM • Beam $0.69/hour Updated: 11/4/2026 SwissGPU $0.49/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price Price Difference:↑+$0.20(+41.3%) Beam SwissGPU
RTX 5080 16GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$0.37/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 5080 16GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $0.37/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX 5090 32GB VRAM • BeamSwissGPU	$1.09/hr	$0.61/hr★ Best	↑+$0.48(+78.4%)	Beam SwissGPU
RTX 5090 32GB VRAM • Beam $1.09/hour Updated: 11/4/2026 SwissGPU $0.61/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price Price Difference:↑+$0.48(+78.4%) Beam SwissGPU
RTX 6000 Ada 48GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$1.83/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX 6000 Ada 48GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $1.83/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU
RTX PRO 6000 96GB VRAM • SwissGPU	Not Available	$2.45/hr★ Best	—	SwissGPU
RTX PRO 6000 96GB VRAM • Not Available SwissGPU $2.45/hour Updated: 11/6/2026 ★Best Price SwissGPU

Features Comparison

Beam

Pay-per-millisecond Billing
Only charged when your code runs, no charges for cold starts or server spin-up
Sub-second Cold Starts
Memory snapshots and GPU checkpoint restore bring containers back in seconds, which Beam reports as up to 35x faster than a traditional cold boot
Secure Sandbox Environments
Run untrusted code safely in isolated environments for AI agents and code interpreters
Stateful, Persistent Runtimes
Pause and resume sessions while maintaining filesystem, memory, and running processes
Elastic GPU Scaling
Scale to zero when idle, burst to thousands of containers in seconds
Custom Docker Images
Bring your own Docker images for full environment control, including running the Docker daemon inside containers

SwissGPU

Dedicated Resources
Every machine is fully dedicated to you, with direct access to GPU, CPU, memory, and storage. There is no virtualization layer and no shared GPU resources.
Isolated GPU Infrastructure
Run AI workloads on isolated GPU resources with secure SSH access.
Permanent Data Wipe
All data and the OS are permanently wiped after server rental ends.
Ultra-Low Latency
Offers ultra-low latency desktops that mimic local experience.
Fully Swiss Hosted
All servers, data, and operations are based in Switzerland.
Per-Minute Billing
Servers are billed per minute and billing stops when the machine is powered off, with no separate storage or network transfer charges.

Pros & Cons

Beam

Advantages

Pay-per-millisecond billing with no charges for cold starts
Ultrafast boot times with sub-second cold starts via memory snapshots
GPU selection spanning RTX 4090 through B200, plus InfiniBand cluster nodes
On-demand machines priced flat per machine, including vCPU, RAM, and NVMe storage

Considerations

Serverless GPUs other than the RTX 4090 require a committed-spend agreement
GPU container concurrency is capped on the lower plan tiers
Multi-node InfiniBand clusters are sales-only with no published pricing

SwissGPU

Advantages

Dedicated bare-metal GPU and compute resources for each client, with no virtualization layer.
Secure SSH access, with all data and the OS permanently wiped at the end of a rental.
Local-like experience with ultra-low latency remote desktops.
Published hourly rates for every GPU configuration, with per-minute billing and no storage or network fees.

Considerations

Consumer and workstation GPUs only — no datacenter accelerators such as H100 or B200 for large-scale training.
Single location: all capacity is in Switzerland, which adds latency for users outside Europe.
Electricity is metered and billed on top of the hourly rate, so the listed rate is not the full cost.

Compute Services

Beam

Inference Endpoints

Deploy high-performance inference endpoints with custom models

Custom model hosting on GPU or CPU
Pre-loading models for fast response times

Sandboxes

Secure code execution environments for AI agents

Run untrusted LLM-generated code safely
Snapshot and restore complete system state

Task Queues

Run large-scale workloads with distributed processing

Audio processing pipelines
Data processing at scale

SwissGPU

Pricing Options

Beam

Pay-per-millisecond

Serverless GPU, CPU, and sandbox usage billed by the millisecond with no minimum charges

Committed Spend

Serverless access to GPUs beyond the RTX 4090 is arranged through a committed-spend agreement

On-Demand Machines

Flat hourly price per machine that already includes the vCPU, RAM, and NVMe storage

Reserved Clusters

Multi-node InfiniBand clusters reserved monthly or yearly, quoted through sales

Bring Your Own Cloud

Per-vCPU and per-GB management fee on top of compute billed directly by your own cloud provider

Storage

Persistent volumes and snapshots included up to a capacity threshold, then billed per GB per month

Monthly Plans

Developer plan free with usage, Team plan with a monthly base fee plus usage, and a contact-sales Growth tier

Free Monthly Credits

All plans include monthly free credits that refresh each month

Volume Discounts

Discounts available for high monthly usage, arranged through sales

SwissGPU

Per-minute on-demand billing

Dedicated physical servers billed per minute, with billing stopping when the server is powered off and no additional storage or network charges.

Prepaid credits

Credits are topped up on the platform at any time, with payments processed by Stripe.

Metered electricity

Power consumption is billed separately per kWh on top of the hourly server rate, and a small fee applies when reinstalling the operating system.

Custom configurations and long-term commitments

Negotiated directly with the provider rather than published as self-service rates.

Getting Started

Beam

Get Started

1
Create an account
Sign up on the Beam platform to receive monthly free credits
2
Set up Python environment
Create a virtual environment and install the Beam SDK
3
Authenticate with API token
Configure your API token to connect to Beam
4
Deploy your first app
Run a function locally, then deploy it as a web endpoint with the Beam CLI

SwissGPU

Get Started

1
Browse available servers
Review the GPU configurations and their CPU, RAM, and NVMe specifications at https://www.swissgpu.ch/rent.
2
Create an account and add credits
Credits can be added to the account at any time; payments are processed through Stripe.
3
Rent a server
Select a configuration and start the rental; billing runs per minute while the server is powered on.
4
Connect to the machine
Access the server over secure SSH, or attach Visual Studio Code using the documented remote workflow.
5
Power off when finished
Billing stops as soon as the server is powered off, and all data and the OS are wiped when the rental ends.

Support & Global Availability

Beam

Global Regions

30+ regions spanning the US, EU, Asia-Pacific, and Canada, with workloads routed across clouds and regions in real time

Support

Documentation, public Slack community, and a status page; live chat support on paid plans and a private Slack channel on the top tier

SwissGPU

Global Regions

Fully hosted in Switzerland; no other regions offered.

Support

Documentation site covering connection workflows and per-framework guides, plus a contact form and email support for technical questions and custom configurations.