H100 GPU Rental vs Purchase Cost Explained

Costs approximate in INR as of Jan 2026; vary by provider/region. Cyfuture offers H100 rentals with zero upfront, instant scaling.

The NVIDIA H100 GPU, powered by Hopper architecture, dominates AI, ML, and HPC workloads with 80GB HBM3 memory and up to 4x faster inference than A100s. Businesses face a key decision: rent via cloud providers like Cyfuture Cloud or buy outright. This knowledge base breaks down costs, factoring in Delhi/India pricing (GST-inclusive where applicable), TCO over 1-3 years, and real-world scenarios.

Upfront and Ongoing Costs: Rental Breakdown

Renting H100 GPUs eliminates massive CapEx. Cyfuture Cloud, an Indian provider with Delhi data centers, offers H100 instances starting at ₹2.5-4L per month per GPU (on-demand), dropping to ₹1.8-3L with reservations. This includes:

- Compute + Storage: Full-stack with NVLink, InfiniBand networking (up to 400Gbps), and 100-500TB block storage.

- No Hidden Fees: Power, cooling, and 99.99% SLA uptime baked in. Scale from 1-100s of GPUs instantly.

- Billing Model: Hourly (~₹350-600/hr), so idle time costs nothing if you pause instances. For a 730-hour month at 100% utilization: ~₹2.5L base.

Example: Training a 70B LLM parameter model? Spin up 8x H100 for ₹20L/month, terminate post-training. Total for 100 hours: ~₹3L.

Upfront and Ongoing Costs: Purchase Breakdown

Buying an H100 means ₹40-60 lakhs per unit (enterprise-grade from NVIDIA partners like INSPUR or Dell). Add:

- Hardware Extras: Server chassis (₹10-20L for 8-GPU node), PSU, racks.

- OpEx Annual: Electricity (~₹2-4L/GPU at ₹8/kWh, 3-5kW draw), cooling (₹1-2L), maintenance (10% of hardware/year), staff (₹10-20L for sysadmin).

- Depreciation: 3-year life, resell value drops 50%+ after year 1.

Full 8-GPU DGX H100 system: ₹4-6Cr upfront. Year 1 TCO: ₹5-7Cr including ops.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Comparison

Over time, costs diverge based on utilization.

1-Year Horizon (High Utilization: 80%):

Rental: ₹25-35L (8x H100 equivalent).

Purchase: ₹50-70L (hardware + ₹10L ops).

3-Year Horizon:

Rental: ₹70-100L (flexible scaling).

Purchase: ₹60-90L (if fully utilized; balloons if underused).

Cyfuture's edge: Local Delhi peering reduces latency (sub-5ms to India AWS/GCP), no forex hassles, and green energy offsets (20% renewable).

Hidden Costs of Purchase:

Downtime: Hardware failures cost ₹5-10L/fix.

Scalability: Expanding from 8 to 64 GPUs? Another ₹3Cr+.

Obsolescence: H200/B100 arrive 2026; H100 resell tanks.

Rental Perks Beyond Cost:

Multi-GPU clusters with NVIDIA Magnum IO.

Tools: Jupyter, Kubernetes, auto-scaling.

Compliance: GDPR, ISO 27001 for Indian regs.

When to Rent vs Buy

Rent with Cyfuture: Prototyping, seasonal peaks, SMBs (<₹50Cr revenue). Pay for value, not assets.

Buy: Fortune 500 with 24/7 pipelines, custom silicon needs.

Hybrid: Cyfuture for dev/test, own for prod.

Real Case: Indian startup rented Cyfuture H100s for Llama fine-tuning—saved ₹2Cr vs buying, scaled 10x in months.

Conclusion

H100 rental via Cyfuture Cloud wins for most (60-80% savings in year 1, zero risk), especially variable AI workloads in India. Purchase suits locked-in, high-utilization behemoths but inflates TCO with ops overhead. Calculate your break-even: if utilization <70% or horizon <2 years, rent. Cyfuture delivers enterprise H100 at startup prices—start small, scale fearlessly.

Follow-Up Questions with Answers

1. What are current Cyfuture H100 rental rates?
On-demand: ₹350-600/hour per GPU; monthly reserved: ₹1.8-3L. Custom quotes via cyfuture.cloud—Delhi users get priority.

2. How does latency compare to global clouds?
Cyfuture's Delhi DCs offer <5ms to Mumbai/Bangalore, vs 50-100ms from US/EU providers. Ideal for India ML inference.

3. Can I get a free trial?
Yes, ₹10k credits for new users. Test 1x H100 for 20-30 hours.

What's the GPU roadmap post-H100?
H200 (141GB) Q1 2026, Blackwell B100 Q3. Cyfuture announces upgrades same-day.