TL;DR
<ul><li>Need a massive, multi-node H100 cluster? <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/p5/">AWS P5</a> gives you 8× H100s per node, 3,200 Gbps networking, and 30.7 TB NVMe. Price: ~$55-66/hr depending on region.</li><li>Want the cheapest, no-commitment way to fine-tune or serve models? <a href="https://www.thundercompute.com/pricing">Thunder Compute</a> offers A100 80 GB for $0.78/hr, billed per second with persistent storage and one-click VS Code.</li><li>AWS adds separate costs for storage and data egress — up to <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/">0.08/GB/month for EBS</a> and <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/">0.09/GB for egress</a> after 100 GB.</li><li>AWS requires quotas and has a 60-second billing minimum. Thunder Compute doesn't.</li></ul>
What each platform is best at
<ul><li><strong>AWS P5</strong>: Multi-node H100 clusters, ultra-fast networking, and deep AWS integration.</li><li><strong>Thunder Compute</strong>: Low-cost A100 80 GB with persistent storage, per-second billing, snapshots, and fast setup — perfect for prototyping, fine-tuning, and inference.</li></ul>
Pricing Snapshot (December 2025)
Note: AWS pricing varies by region and is subject to quotas. Thunder Compute pricing is flat and usage-based.
Specs Comparison
Quick cost calculations
<ul><li>8× A100 80 GB Equivalent Thunder Compute: 8 × $0.78 = $6.24/hr</li><li>AWS P4de: $40.96/hr</li><li>Savings: Thunder is ~6.6x cheaper</li><li>8× H100 AWS P5: ~$55–66/hr</li><li>Thunder Compute's H100s: $1.38/hr × 8 = $11.04/hr</li></ul>
If you don't need P5-level networking, Thunder is cheaper by a large margin for nearly all fine-tuning, eval, and model serving tasks.
Storage and Persistence
<ul><li>AWS: Ephemeral storage. To persist data, you'll need to add <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/">EBS volumes</a> (0.08/GB/mo), pay for snapshots, and budget for <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/">data egress</a>.</li><li>Thunder Compute: Persistent storage by default. You can stop and resume without data loss. Snapshots and spec changes (RAM, disk, vCPU) are one click.</li></ul>
Billing and Availability
<ul><li>AWS: Per-second billing, but with a 60-second minimum. Many GPU families (like P5) require a quota request before use. See AWS quotas.</li><li>Thunder Compute: No quotas. Start instantly. Full per-second billing with no minimums and no lock-in.</li></ul>
When to Choose Each
Use AWS P5 if:
<ul><li>You need UltraCluster networking</li><li>You're running massively parallel H100 jobs</li><li>You require tight AWS service integration</li></ul>
Use Thunder Compute if:
<ul><li>You want the cheapest A100 80 GB</li><li>You need persistent storage and snapshots</li><li>You want no lock-in and a simple interface</li></ul>
Get Started
<ul><li>Spin up an A100 80 GB at $0.78/hr with persistent storage and per-second billing on <a href="https://www.thundercompute.com/pricing">Thunder Compute</a>.</li><li>If needed, migrate to <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/p5/">AWS P5</a> later for high-scale training.</li></ul>