Microsoft Azure is the hyperscaler with the deepest enterprise footprint and the closest ties to OpenAI. Its GPU story is the ND-series: ND H100 v5 (8× H100 with InfiniBand), ND A100 v4, and newer Blackwell shapes that are largely allocated to Azure OpenAI and large customers. For a regulated enterprise on Microsoft's stack, keeping GPUs in Azure is the path of least resistance.
packet.ai is a GPU cloud without a productivity suite attached. It sells one card at a time, hourly, at rates that are a third to a quarter of Azure's per-GPU list price, and it has a B200 on the rate card. This comparison is for the team that has an Azure commitment and a GPU bill that is starting to dwarf it.
Platform overview: packet.ai vs Azure
What Azure offers
Azure prices GPUs as part of a VM SKU. ND H100 v5 (8× H100 80GB, InfiniBand) lists around $98/hr in US regions on pay-as-you-go, or roughly $12.29 per GPU-hour, with Spot around $9.00 per GPU-hour when available; ND A100 v4 works out to roughly $3.40–4.10 per GPU-hour. Blackwell (ND GB200 v6) is offered to select customers; B200 is not in the standard self-serve catalogue as of mid-2026. Reserved instances and Savings Plans discount 30–60%.
- 8-GPU ND nodes are the unit; single-GPU options are limited to older NC/NV families
- Quota approvals required for ND-series; capacity is constrained in many regions
- Egress from about $0.087/GB after the free allowance
- Azure OpenAI, Entra ID, Microsoft Fabric and the enterprise compliance portfolio are the real draw
What packet.ai delivers
Azure's GPU story is an 8-card node, a quota request, and a Blackwell shape most developers cannot self-serve at all. packet.ai sells one card, no quota, and lists a B200 you can deploy against right now.
On Ampere the gap is direct: ND A100 v4 works out to roughly $3.40–4.10 per GPU-hour; packet.ai's A100 80GB Dedicated is $1.43/hr, a 58–65% saving. Azure's ND H100 v5 is the most expensive H100 on any comparison on this site at roughly $12.29 per GPU-hour, a card packet.ai does not sell yet, but packet.ai's B200, a newer and faster card, is $3.75/hr Dynamic, well under that.
- Dynamic: scheduler-enforced multi-tenant, one card, no quota ticket. B200 starting at $3.75/hr, a rate Azure cannot offer since B200 is not in its standard self-serve catalogue.
- Dedicated: a whole card, single-tenant, 99% SLA. RTX 4090 at $0.39/hr, L40S at $0.92/hr, A100 80GB at $1.43/hr, B200 at $6.99/hr.
What Azure has that packet.ai does not: Entra ID, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, and a compliance portfolio (FedRAMP High, HIPAA, ISO 27001) built for regulated enterprises already on Microsoft's stack. If your identity and governance live in Azure, that integration is worth paying for. If you just need Blackwell or Ampere GPU-hours without an eight-card minimum or a quota conversation, packet.ai is the more direct route.
Billing is hourly with monthly commits up to 20% off. There are no platform fees and no ingress charges; egress is $0.04/GB. Up to 2 TB of local NVMe per node is included. Dynamic instances are SSH-ready in under five minutes, Dedicated in five to ten. Capacity is live in the US (California, Virginia, Texas, Oregon) and Europe (Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Dublin). H100 SXM, H200 and RTX 5090 are on the notify list.
Against Azure, packet.ai wins on the GPU line the way every neocloud does, only more so: a B200 exists on the rate card at $3.75/hr, an A100 80GB is $1.43/hr against roughly $3.40–4.10 per GPU-hour on ND A100 v4, and there is no quota request or eight-card minimum. Azure keeps everything that is not the GPU.
packet.ai vs Azure at a glance
Published starting rates in USD per GPU-hour, on-demand unless noted. Percentages compare the first price in each cell.
| Category | packet.aiYOU | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| B200 (180–192GB) | $3.75/hr Dynamic · $6.99/hr Dedicated | Not in standard self-serve catalogue; GB200 for select customers |
| A100 80GB | $1.43/hr Dedicated−58–65% | ~$3.40–4.10/hr per GPU (ND A100 v4, 8× node) |
| L40S (48GB) | $0.92/hr Dedicated | Not offered (A10 in NV-series instead) |
| RTX 6000 Pro (96GB) | $0.66/hr Dynamic | Not offered |
| RTX 4090 (24GB) | $0.39/hr Dedicated | Not offered |
| H100 (80GB) | Launching soon (notify list) | ~$12.29/hr per GPU (ND H100 v5, 8× node) · Spot ~$9.00 |
| Unit of purchase | 1 GPU, hourly | 8-GPU ND node; older single-GPU NC/NV shapes |
| Access | Self-serve, no quota approval | Quota request; regional capacity constraints |
| Discount model | Monthly up to 20% off; clusters ~30% below retail | 1–3 year reservations, Savings Plans, Spot |
| Egress | $0.04/GB, no ingress fee | ~$0.087/GB after free allowance |
| Enterprise identity & compliance | Dedicated single-tenant tier, 99% SLA | Entra ID, FedRAMP High, HIPAA, ISO, SOC and more |
| Adjacent AI services | Token Factory (waitlist), Pixel Factory | Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, Fabric |
Detailed comparison
Per-GPU pricing
Azure's ND H100 v5 is the most expensive published H100 on this site at roughly $12.29 per GPU-hour pay-as-you-go. packet.ai does not sell an H100 yet, but its B200, a newer and roughly twice-as-fast card, is $3.75/hr Dynamic. On Ampere the comparison is direct: about $3.40–4.10 per A100 80GB-hour on Azure against $1.43/hr on packet.ai Dedicated, a 58–65% saving.
Reserved instances and Savings Plans close part of the gap for customers committing to a year or three of 24/7 usage, and enterprise agreements do the rest for the largest accounts. For the team that just needs GPUs this quarter, list price is what they pay.
Blackwell availability
This is the sharpest difference. Azure's Blackwell capacity has gone largely to Azure OpenAI and named customers; a developer cannot self-serve a B200 today. packet.ai lists B200 Dynamic at $3.75/hr and Dedicated at $6.99/hr with capacity in Virginia. If your roadmap says Blackwell this year, one of these clouds lets you start.
Quotas, shapes and egress
Azure's ND-series requires a quota increase, comes in 8-GPU nodes, and is capacity-constrained in many regions. packet.ai's single-GPU, self-serve model removes all three obstacles for anything under a cluster. Egress at $0.04/GB is roughly half of Azure's post-allowance rate; moving fine-tuned weights or generated media out of Azure is a cost line worth modelling.
Where Azure is not replaceable
Entra ID, Azure OpenAI, Fabric, Purview and the compliance portfolio (FedRAMP High, HIPAA, ISO 27001, the works) are the reasons enterprises are on Azure, and packet.ai does not compete with any of them. The practical pattern is hybrid: identity, data governance and Azure OpenAI stay in Azure; open-model GPU-hours run on packet.ai, connected over a private link or plain TLS.
Who should choose which
Choose packet.ai if
- You want a B200 now and cannot get one in Azure
- You need single GPUs hourly without a quota ticket
- Your open-model inference or fine-tuning bill is growing faster than your Azure commit
- You want egress at half Azure's rate
Choose Azure if
- Your identity, governance and compliance live in Microsoft's stack
- You are primarily an Azure OpenAI customer and GPUs are incidental
- You have an enterprise agreement with negotiated GPU rates
- You need FedRAMP High or similar certifications on the compute
Conclusion
Azure is the enterprise's system of record and the most expensive H100 on the market. packet.ai is a third of the price per GPU-hour on Ampere, has Blackwell you can actually buy, and asks nothing of your procurement team. Keep the enterprise stack on Azure; move the GPU-hours.
Same silicon. Smarter economics.
Every rate on this page is a published starting price you can deploy against today. Dynamic launches in under five minutes; no credit card to start.
Additional resources
- packet.ai GPU pricing: the full Dynamic, Dedicated and Clusters rate card.
- packet.ai documentation: API, CLI and platform guides.
- How intelligent scheduling works: why Dynamic keeps peak performance at a lower price.
- Clusters and wholesale quotes: multi-node InfiniBand capacity at ~30% below retail.
- Rent GPUs on packet.ai: specs, pricing and workload fit for every card.