DigitalOcean bought Paperspace in 2023 and now sells GPU Droplets and the Gradient AI platform alongside its famously simple developer cloud. You get H100 and H200 singles and 8× nodes, L40S, RTX 6000 Ada, RTX 4000 Ada and AMD MI300X, with the same clean console, docs and predictable billing DigitalOcean is known for.
packet.ai is built for the same buyer with the same promise of simplicity, and a rate card that undercuts DigitalOcean on every comparable card. This comparison is about how much simpler you really need it, and what that costs.
Platform overview: packet.ai vs DigitalOcean
What DigitalOcean offers
DigitalOcean's GPU Droplet rates after the 1 August 2026 price change: H100 $4.41/hr, H200 $4.47/hr, L40S $1.57/hr, RTX 6000 Ada $1.57/hr, RTX 4000 Ada $0.76/hr, plus AMD MI300X and 8× H100/H200 nodes. Billing is hourly, bandwidth includes a free allowance then $0.01/GB, and the Gradient platform adds serverless inference and agent tooling.
- Simple console, strong docs, predictable billing; the DigitalOcean developer experience
- Single H100 and H200 instances available, not just 8× nodes
- Gradient AI platform for managed inference and agents on top
- Limited SKU range: no Ampere A100, no Blackwell workstation cards, no B200 on-demand
What packet.ai delivers
DigitalOcean matches packet.ai on the thing that actually matters to this buyer: a simple console, a card, an hourly rate, no cloud architecture required. Where the two diverge is price and range. On the L40S, the one card sold identically by both, packet.ai is 41% cheaper at $0.92/hr against $1.57/hr.
On workstation-class cards the comparison isn't quite like-for-like, but it's instructive: DigitalOcean's RTX 6000 Ada carries 48GB of VRAM at $1.57/hr, while packet.ai's RTX 6000 Pro carries 96GB, double the memory, at $0.66/hr, 58% less. On the entry tier, packet.ai's 24GB RTX 4090 at $0.39/hr costs half of DigitalOcean's 20GB RTX 4000 Ada at $0.76/hr.
- Dynamic: scheduler-enforced multi-tenant, simple console, hourly. RTX 6000 Pro at $0.66/hr, B200 starting at $3.75/hr, neither of which DigitalOcean lists.
- 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 DigitalOcean has that packet.ai does not: single H100 and H200 instances at a fair price for a hyperscaler-adjacent brand, cheaper bandwidth, and Gradient's managed inference and agent tooling. If you need Hopper today as a single card, or ship terabytes of egress every month, DigitalOcean is worth the look. If you want the lowest rate on L40S or a workstation-class card, or need Blackwell or Ampere that DigitalOcean does not list at all, packet.ai is cheaper and broader.
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 DigitalOcean, packet.ai is cheaper on every card both list and offers newer silicon. The L40S is $0.92/hr against $1.57/hr; the RTX 6000 Pro, a 96GB Blackwell card DigitalOcean does not have, is $0.66/hr against DigitalOcean's 48GB RTX 6000 Ada at $1.57/hr. packet.ai also lists A100 and B200, which DigitalOcean does not.
packet.ai vs DigitalOcean 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 | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| L40S (48GB) | $0.92/hr Dedicated−41% | $1.57/hr |
| RTX 6000 Pro (96GB Blackwell) vs RTX 6000 Ada (48GB) | $0.66/hr Dynamic (RTX 6000 Pro)−58% | $1.57/hr (RTX 6000 Ada) |
| RTX 4090 (24GB) vs RTX 4000 Ada (20GB) | $0.39/hr Dedicated (RTX 4090)−49% | $0.76/hr (RTX 4000 Ada) |
| A100 80GB | $1.43/hr Dedicated | Not offered |
| B200 (180–192GB) | $3.75/hr Dynamic · $6.99/hr Dedicated | Not offered on-demand |
| H100 / H200 | Launching soon (notify list) | H100 $4.41/hr · H200 $4.47/hr |
| AMD | Not offered | MI300X available |
| Billing | Hourly; monthly commits up to 20% off | Hourly |
| Data transfer | No ingress fee; egress $0.04/GB | Free allowance, then ~$0.01/GB |
| Managed inference | Token Factory (waitlist), Pixel Factory | Gradient serverless inference and agents |
| Multi-node | Bare metal and InfiniBand clusters to 1,024+ | 8× H100/H200 nodes |
Detailed comparison
Rate card, like for like
On the L40S, the one card both sell identically, packet.ai is 41% cheaper: $0.92/hr against $1.57/hr. On the workstation class, DigitalOcean's RTX 6000 Ada (48GB, Ada Lovelace) is $1.57/hr while packet.ai's RTX 6000 Pro (96GB, Blackwell) is $0.66/hr. On the entry class, a 24GB RTX 4090 at $0.39/hr against a 20GB RTX 4000 Ada at $0.76/hr.
DigitalOcean's advantage is Hopper: H100 at $4.41/hr and H200 at $4.47/hr as single instances, which packet.ai does not have yet. Its H200 price in particular is competitive for a hyperscaler-adjacent brand.
Bandwidth
This is the one line where DigitalOcean is cheaper. Its bandwidth allowance and $0.01/GB overage are among the lowest in the industry; packet.ai's egress is $0.04/GB. For a workload that ships terabytes out every month, run the numbers. For most GPU workloads egress is a rounding error next to compute, and the compute gap is 40–60% in packet.ai's favour.
Simplicity and platform
Both platforms are pitched at developers who want a GPU, not a cloud architecture. DigitalOcean's console, docs and community tutorials are best-in-class, and Gradient adds managed inference and agent tooling for teams that want less to run. packet.ai gives you the dashboard, API and CLI, an SSH-ready instance in under five minutes, and Token Factory on the way for pay-per-token inference. Comparable simplicity, one extra layer on DigitalOcean's side.
Range and headroom
DigitalOcean has no A100 and no B200 on demand; its range tops out at H200 singles and 8× nodes. packet.ai spans RTX 4090 to B200 with bare metal and InfiniBand clusters above that. A team that starts on a $0.39/hr card and ends up needing 64 B200s can do that on one account.
Who should choose which
Choose packet.ai if
- GPU-hours are your primary cloud cost and you want the lowest published rate on A100, L40S or B200
- You want an RTX 6000 Pro or B200 that DigitalOcean does not offer
- Your team manages its own MLOps stack and does not need Paperspace Gradient
- You are running at a volume where 40–63% lower GPU rates compound into a meaningful saving
Choose DigitalOcean if
- Your team already runs on DigitalOcean and adding a GPU Droplet keeps everything on one bill
- You need GPU alongside DigitalOcean Kubernetes, managed databases, or Spaces object storage
- You use Paperspace Gradient for hosted notebooks or managed ML workflows
- H100 SXM is the card you need today and you do not want a second vendor
Conclusion
DigitalOcean is the friendliest hyperscaler-lite there is, and its H200 pricing is fair. packet.ai matches its simplicity, undercuts it by 40–60% on every shared card, and has the Blackwell and Ampere silicon DigitalOcean does not. Unless you need Hopper today or ship terabytes of egress, packet.ai is the cheaper simple cloud.
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.