Hinode: a RunPod alternative that keeps your setup
RunPod rents the card for less. Hinode puts a computer around it: your apps and files on a disk that is still there after a pause, and a machine that pauses itself when you stop working.
Eligible new accounts get $10 to try after a $1 card check and refund.
48 GB L40S: from $2.64/hr here, $1.09/hr on RunPod ·
Checked 2026-10-05
Hinode vs RunPod
The same cards, with a computer around them
Line by line, with the rows where RunPod wins left in. RunPod figures are its Secure Cloud list prices on 2026-10-05.
| Hinode | RunPod | |
| 24 GB, per hour | L4 · from $1.40 | L4 · $0.49 |
| 48 GB, per hour | L40S · from $2.64 | L40S · $1.09 |
| 96 GB, per hour | RTX PRO 6000 · from $4.74 | RTX PRO 6000 · $2.09 |
| Billed | By the minute | By the second |
| Disk, running | $0.15 per GB-month, for what is written | $0.10 per GB-month |
| Disk, stopped | $0.15 per GB-month, same | $0.20 per GB-month |
| Shared storage | $0.10 per GB-month, on every machine | $0.07 per GB-month network volume |
| Traffic out | $0.10 per GB | No fee |
| Ways in | SSH, VS Code, AI assistants, apps in your browser | Web terminal, SSH, JupyterLab, VS Code |
| When you stop | Paused: disk, apps and files kept | Volume kept, container disk cleared |
| Getting the GPU back | Any free card of that size | Not held: a restart can get zero GPUs |
| When you forget it | Pauses itself after 15 idle minutes | Runs until you stop it |
| Where | US East, Frankfurt | 31 regions |
RunPod, read 2026-10-05: runpod.io/pricing · docs.runpod.io/pods/storage/types · docs.runpod.io/pods/manage-pods · docs.runpod.io/pods/connect-to-a-pod · runpod.io/product/cloud-gpus. Community Cloud is cheaper still: an L40S is $0.79 and an RTX PRO 6000 $1.69. Hinode figures are the live price list. All providers, side by side: /compare
Which one
Which one should you use?
Both rent you an NVIDIA card by the hour. They differ in what is around it.
Use RunPod when
- The hourly rate decides: the same card is about a third of the price.
- You want serverless endpoints, or a region Hinode is not in.
- You work in a container over SSH or Jupyter and stop the Pod yourself.
Use Hinode when
- You come back to the same setup every day and do not want to rebuild it.
- You want ComfyUI in a tab on your own computer, without opening a port.
- You forget machines: an idle one pauses itself after 15 minutes.
- Several machines should read one folder of models.
Pricing
Cloud GPU pricing, by the minute
Eligible new accounts get $10 to try after a $1 card check and refund.
WORKSPACE
$0.24/hr
1/8 of an NVIDIA L4, your files and your apps. Pauses itself when you leave.
- Disk
- $0.15 / GB-month written
- Shared folder
- $0.10 / GB-month
- Traffic out
- $0.10 / GB
MACHINE · 24 GB
from$1.40/hr
NVIDIA L4
Image generation, light fine-tuning, most ComfyUI work
MACHINE · 48 GB
Popularfrom$2.64/hr
NVIDIA L40S
Video models, bigger LoRAs, 30B-class inference
MACHINE · 96 GB
from$4.74/hr
RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell
70B-class models, long video, what fits nowhere else
What a month costs
≈ $90/month
87 h of workspace $20.88 + 26 h on 48x32 $68.64. Disks and the shared folder are extra.
Credit is drawn at these rates, the same in the US and Europe.
FAQ
Hinode and RunPod: questions
No. On 2026-10-05 an L40S with 48 GB was $1.09 an hour on RunPod's Secure Cloud and from $2.64 on Hinode. Hinode is for people who lose more to rebuilding a setup and to forgotten machines than to the hourly rate.
A computer instead of a container: apps that install in one click, and a disk that keeps them through a pause. A machine pauses itself after 15 idle minutes, and every machine in a workspace reads one shared folder.
Only for its disk: $0.15 per GB-month for what is written on it, the same rate as while it runs. The hourly charge stops.
Yes. Every Hinode machine answers over SSH, so rsync or scp copies a Pod's volume straight to it. Put models in the shared folder and every machine you start reads them.
No. Hinode rents whole machines by the minute. For a batch over a dataset, hinode run starts a machine, runs your command and pauses the machine when it is done.
Eligible new accounts get $10 to try after a $1 card check and refund, subject to availability. The trial lasts up to 7 days with any GPU size and one machine: about 4 hours 52 minutes on the smallest L4 before storage and traffic. Add prepaid credit from $10 to continue.
Set it up once. Find it there tomorrow.
Create a workspace, install your apps, and start a GPU when you need one.
Eligible new accounts get $10 to try after a $1 card check and refund.
