Rent vs buy: the break-even calculator
Seeded with today's cheapest listed rental rates (2026-10-06). The formula is shown: check our math.
Starting usage, electricity and wattage values are editable examples, not measured consumption.
Formula: break-even hours = hardware price ÷ (rental $/hr − electricity $/hr), where electricity $/hr = watts ÷ 1000 × $/kWh. Resale value, cooling and your time are not included: the calculation covers purchase price, GPU electricity and rental compute only.
The rental input covers GPU compute. Check egress, storage and stopped-instance charges before treating this break-even as an all-in cloud budget.
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