Sources & methodology

1. Platform fee and payouts

Vast.ai. The host sets the prices for three components: GPU rental ($/hr) + storage ($/TB·mo) + bandwidth ($/TB) — and receives them in full: nothing is deducted from the host’s price. Vast.ai’s margin is a markup charged to the client and is not taken out of the host’s income. Our own measurement (August 2026, our own machine) puts the markup at ×1.33: a host price of $0.21/hr shows as $0.28/hr to the client, and the same ratio applies to storage and traffic ($3/TB → $4/TB). So the client pays about 33% more, and the platform keeps 25% of the client price. (Vast’s own wording differs: docs — “no markup on host-set prices”, article — “prices ~25% above host earnings”; either way the host keeps their full price.) Billing is per-second; payouts are weekly (Fridays, 03:00 MSK / 00:00 UTC) once your balance reaches $20, minus the payment provider’s transfer fee (Stripe 0.25–1% / Wise 1% / PayPal 3%).

2. Rental rates ($/GPU-hour)

The default rates in the calculators are what the host receives: the median offer price on vast.ai/pricing (snapshot of 14 Sep 2026, on-demand) without the platform markup, i.e. ÷1.33. They change with demand, so check the live links below and enter your own. The card price is a 2026 second-hand market reference and is editable too. Defaults:

RUB reference rate: 92 ₽/$. All maths is in dollars, electricity included (cents per kWh); ruble figures are for reference only.

3. Utilization

Utilization is not a fixed fact but an assumption: it depends on demand, GPU class, price, uptime and host rating. The income calculator starts at 50% — a starting point, replace it with your real figure. A large, long-running marketplace (Vast.ai since 2019) usually sees higher AI demand, but there are no guarantees.

4. Calculator methodology

Income calculator (month = 730 hours):

effUtil   = min(1, util × ramFactor × cpuFactor)     # ramFactor: ≥16 ГБ/GPU → 1, ≥8 → 0.9, иначе 0.75; cpuFactor 0.92 / 1.00 / 1.04
grossHour = rate × effUtil × count                    # $/час, ставка хоста — без удержаний
gross     = grossHour × 730
fee       = gross × 0.01                              # комиссия при выводе (Wise, Stripe)
gpuW      = TDP × (0.8 × effUtil + 0.1 × (1 − effUtil))
kWh       = 730 × (gpuW × count + cpuW + ram × 0.4) / 1000 / 0.92   # cpuW 65 / 120 / 200, КПД БП 0.92
elec      = kWh × cents / 100                         # центы США за кВт·ч → $
net       = gross − fee − elec − 8                    # $8/мес — VPS для туннеля
invest    = card × count + server + ram × 3           # сервер без карт: 500 / 1000 / 2000 по умолчанию
payback   = invest / net                              # месяцев

5. All sources

• vast.ai/hosting — GPU hosting on Vast.ai (overview)
• cloud.vast.ai/earnings — host earnings calculator (live market data)
• vast.ai/article — how much you can earn — per-GPU rates and “prices ≈25% above host earnings”
• docs.vast.ai — pricing — Vast.ai pricing docs