Market insights

Crusoe Cloud vs Thunder Compute (September 2025)

September 16, 2025
11 mins read

Looking for cheap A100s? Here’s how Crusoe Cloud compares to Thunder Compute across pricing, billing, flexibility, and ease of use.

1. A100 80GB Pricing (On-Demand)

Provider A100 80GB Price Billing Granularity Reserved Pricing
Thunder Compute $0.78/hr Per second No commitment
Crusoe Cloud (PCIe) $1.65/hr Per minute 6–36 month discounts
Crusoe Cloud (SXM) $1.95/hr Per minute 6–36 month discounts

Sources: Crusoe Cloud pricing

Thunder Compute is over 2× cheaper than Crusoe’s base price, with no lock-in or commitments.

2. Persistent Storage and Egress

Feature Thunder Compute Crusoe Cloud
Persistent storage $0.15/GB/mo $0.08–0.09/GB/mo
Snapshots Yes (instant) Yes
Egress within region Free Standard egress fees

Source: Crusoe storage documentation

Crusoe’s block storage is cheaper, but Thunder’s GPU savings typically outweigh storage cost differences.

3. Flexibility and Instance Management

  • Thunder Compute: Resize CPU, RAM, and disk live. Persistent storage tied to instance. No contracts, no waitlist, no limits per account.
  • Crusoe Cloud: PCIe A100s often limited to one per VM. SXM A100s tied to full-node allocations. Reserved pricing requires advance planning and longer commitments.

Also see Shadeform for current Crusoe capacity.

4. Developer Experience

Feature Thunder Compute Crusoe Cloud
One‑click VS Code in‑browser ✓ ✗
Per‑second billing ✓ ✗
Live hardware config changes ✓ ✗
CLI + simple browser UI ✓ ✓
Green energy story ● ✓ (flare gas)

Thunder prioritizes speed and simplicity—ideal for fast iteration. Crusoe emphasizes sustainability and reserved cluster usage.

5. Verdict: Which to Choose?

If you need flexible, low-cost A100s with no commitment and simple UX, Thunder Compute is the winner.
If you need long-term reservations or are optimizing for carbon offsets, Crusoe Cloud may appeal—but expect to pay more up front.

Quick Summary

Question Winner
Lowest on‑demand A100 price Thunder Compute
Best for quick prototyping Thunder Compute
Cheapest persistent storage Crusoe Cloud
Best long‑term discounts Crusoe Cloud
Simplest billing + developer interface Thunder Compute

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