Evan Conrad from SF Compute breaks down why AWS GPU pricing isn't actually more expensive than neoclouds—it's a pricing model illusion.
Neoclouds push reserved contracts with long commitments. You lock in, you get cheaper rates. Simple economics: they know you can't bail mid-contract.
AWS and GCP's on-demand pricing reflects the real cost of keeping idle GPU capacity spinning 24/7 so you can spin up instances instantly. That availability tax is what you're actually paying for.
The harsh reality: nobody wants to pay what on-demand truly costs to be sustainable. Customers want cloud flexibility at reserved pricing—which is fundamentally impossible.
For devs: if you're running consistent workloads, reserved instances or neocloud contracts make sense. If you need burst capacity or unpredictable scaling, hyperscaler on-demand is the only real option despite the premium.
Neoclouds push reserved contracts with long commitments. You lock in, you get cheaper rates. Simple economics: they know you can't bail mid-contract.
AWS and GCP's on-demand pricing reflects the real cost of keeping idle GPU capacity spinning 24/7 so you can spin up instances instantly. That availability tax is what you're actually paying for.
The harsh reality: nobody wants to pay what on-demand truly costs to be sustainable. Customers want cloud flexibility at reserved pricing—which is fundamentally impossible.
For devs: if you're running consistent workloads, reserved instances or neocloud contracts make sense. If you need burst capacity or unpredictable scaling, hyperscaler on-demand is the only real option despite the premium.