zCLOUD vs Paperspace: A Paperspace Alternative Compared on GPU Price, Regions and Billing
Paperspace Machines are dedicated GPU virtual machines that DigitalOcean rents by the hour under the Paperspace name. zCLOUD is Zettabyte's GPU cloud, which pools NVIDIA H100 GPUs from 40+ providers and assigns the cheapest available at purchase.
zCLOUD costs less for the same GPU paid by the hour, starting at $3.75 per GPU per hour against Paperspace's $5.95. A three-year commitment cuts Paperspace's rate to $2.24, below zCLOUD's reserved rate from $2.79.
Paperspace charges a powered-off hourly machine for storage, which suits on-and-off development work.
Quick Verdict: zCLOUD vs Paperspace Machines
| Question | zCLOUD | Paperspace Machines | Lower cost or better fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU rate when paying by the hour | From $3.75 per GPU per hour | $5.95 per GPU per hour | zCLOUD |
| GPU rate with a long-term commitment | From $2.79 per GPU per hour, reserved | $2.24 per GPU per hour on a 3-year term | Paperspace |
| Eight GPUs for 240 hours, hourly rate | From $7,200 | $11,424 | zCLOUD |
| Charge while a machine is powered off | Not stated on the pricing page | Storage fee | Paperspace |
| Where the GPUs run | Set at purchase, with required regions handled by sales | One data center near New York | Depends on your location needs |
How zCLOUD and Paperspace Machines Rent GPUs
zCLOUD matches your order to offers from its providers and assigns the best available deal when you buy. It sells capacity three ways:
- On-Demand: you pay by the hour without a commitment, and instances launch in seconds.
- Reserved Clusters: you commit to a term for a lower rate, and Zettabyte targets deployment within 6 hours of confirmed requirements.
- Private Cloud: a dedicated environment whose timeline depends on your procurement and security review.
Paperspace Machines bill the GPU by the hour while the machine runs. Storage and public IP addresses bill up to a monthly cap.
An auto-shutdown setting stops an idle machine after a period you pick, from one hour to one week.
DigitalOcean also sells GPU Droplets, a separate product that GetDeploying lists at $4.41 per GPU per hour for the same GPU. A powered-off Droplet keeps billing, so check which product a quote covers before you compare it with zCLOUD.
Paperspace GPU Pricing Next to zCLOUD
Each pricing option suits a different kind of work, so compare the matching option on each side:
- Paying by the hour: zCLOUD starts at $3.75 and Paperspace charges $5.95, which Paperspace labels a special promo price. Hourly pricing suits training runs and tests that last days or weeks.
- Committing to a term: Paperspace drops to $2.24 on a three-year term, and zCLOUD's reserved rate starts at $2.79. A term pays off when your GPUs stay busy for most of its hours.
- Interruptible capacity: neither pricing page lists a rate for capacity the provider can reclaim mid-job.
zCLOUD's published rates are starting prices, and zCLOUD confirms the exact rate when it assigns the GPUs.
What Does an Eight-GPU Job Cost on Paperspace and zCLOUD?
Eight of these GPUs running 240 hours cost $11,424 on Paperspace Machines and from $7,200 on zCLOUD at hourly rates. The table assumes eight GPUs busy for each of the 240 hours.
| Pricing option | Cost per hour for 8 GPUs | Cost for 240 hours |
|---|---|---|
| zCLOUD, paying by the hour | From $30.00 | From $7,200 |
| Paperspace Machines, paying by the hour | $47.60 | $11,424 |
The $11,424 Paperspace bill buys about 380 hours of the same setup on zCLOUD.
A three-year Paperspace term brings eight GPUs to $17.92 an hour, and you pay for each hour of the term, including idle ones. Cost to completion counts those idle hours, along with restarts and storage, as part of the cost of finishing a job.
Where Paperspace Runs These GPUs
Paperspace runs machines in three data centers: NY2 near New York, CA1 near Santa Clara and AMS1 near Amsterdam. Its availability table lists one data center for these GPU machines: NY2.
zCLOUD picks the location at purchase when region is optional. A required region goes through sales.
A buyer with a residency rule, such as keeping patient data in one country, should get the location in writing from both providers before comparing price.
Paperspace's security page says its data centers are audited against SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS and ISO 27001. Those audits cover the facilities, so ask either provider which audit reports cover the service you'd buy.
Moving a Workload Off Paperspace Machines
Three things decide how easily a Paperspace workload moves to zCLOUD:
- Data transfer out: Paperspace's pricing docs say it doesn't charge machines for ingress or egress bandwidth, so copying datasets and checkpoints out stays off the Paperspace bill.
- GPU model: zCLOUD sells H100 today and offers H200 and Blackwell through sales. A job tuned for a Paperspace A100, V100 or RTX A6000 needs a test run on zCLOUD's GPUs before you switch.
- Stop-start habits: ask zCLOUD how it bills a stopped on-demand instance before you move on-and-off development work.
Which Paperspace Alternative Fits Each Workload?
Match the provider to how your GPUs will run:
- Steady multi-GPU training paid by the hour: zCLOUD's $3.75 from-rate runs about 37% below Paperspace's $5.95 per busy GPU per hour.
- Work you can commit for three years: Paperspace's $2.24 rate sits below zCLOUD's starting rate for a term, so compare the term lengths side by side.
- On-and-off single-GPU development: Paperspace charges storage for a powered-off hourly machine, which keeps idle days cheap.
- A required location or audit report: get the location and the audit documents in writing from both providers before you compare price.
The zCLOUD product page lists the GPU types and the three ways to buy.