How I cut my model training costs by 80% (Stop overpaying for AWS/GCP)

If you’re like me and spent the last month burning a hole in your pocket renting A100s from the big cloud providers, you need to stop.

I recently switched over to Vast.ai for my fine-tuning runs, and the price difference is actually stupid. While AWS wants $3-$4/hour for an A100, I’m finding 3090s and 4090s on Vast for literally $0.30 - $0.50/hour.

Why it’s actually better for dev work:

• Instant Start: You don't have to wait for "quota approvals" from Google. You just pick a rig and spin it up.
• The Marketplace: It’s basically the Airbnb of GPUs. You can see the reliability score of every host, so you aren't just renting into the void.
• Pre-loaded Templates: They have PyTorch, Jupyter, and Stable Diffusion templates ready to go. One click and you’re in the terminal.

The Catch: It’s an unmanaged marketplace. If a host’s power goes out, your instance might go poof (unless you use on-demand instead of interruptible). But for dev work and non-critical training, it’s a no-brainer.

If you haven't tried it yet, check it out here: https://cloud.vast.ai/ Curious if anyone else has found a cheaper setup for LLM fine-tuning lately?