Reserving GPUs for a long run has usually meant a form, a call, an NDA and a week of email for every company you ask. On Runcrate you now reserve a cluster online, from the request to checked machines. A person is there at any step if you want one; you never have to talk to one.
Describe the cluster once
Open Clusters and choose Reserve a cluster. Without an account, the reserve form keeps your request while you sign up. You say:
- GPU, from the list or any other you name.
- Nodes, each with 8 GPUs.
- Interconnect: InfiniBand, RoCE, Ethernet or no preference.
- Region: North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East, South America, Africa or anywhere.
- Delivered as: bare metal with root access, a Slurm cluster you submit jobs to, or a virtual machine on each node.
- Start and term: the latest start you can take, and 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, or any length up to 60.
- Details, if you want: shared storage, notes, and a monthly budget owners never see.
As you type, the form shows your refundable deposit. The owners' offers set the price.
Verify, then a refundable deposit
Verification is online, and one check covers every owner: who is buying, the company's registered details and anyone who owns more than 25% of it, and what the GPUs will run. Then sign a letter of intent online.
The deposit starts the search: $1,000 or 1% of the first month, whichever is greater, up to $10,000. Pay it by bank transfer, or by card up to $5,000. A credit card carries a fee, shown before you pay; debit and prepaid cards, and cards issued in the EU, EEA or UK, carry none.
The deposit comes back:
- No offer you accept within 21 days after we receive it: refunded in full.
- No deal after you pick, because you or the owner decline or the contract isn't signed within 14 days of the introduction: refunded in full.
- You sign with an owner: it comes back as credit in your Runcrate workspace, or as a refund in one click while that credit is unspent.
A card fee, where there was one, is not refunded.
Offers, side by side
Your request goes to every GPU owner on Runcrate whose hardware fits. Bids are sealed: owners never see each other's prices, and only the owner you pick learns who you are. Every offer arrives in one table, as Offer A, Offer B and so on:
You pay the owner's price, nothing added: Runcrate charges you nothing; the owner pays us. You owe nothing more until you pick.
An offer marked Reserved on Runcrate is our own: Runcrate rents you those machines, the contract is with Runcrate, and the whole term is paid when you sign.
Pick, sign and pay the owner
Pick an offer and accept Runcrate's introduction terms. Once the owner accepts our terms too, we introduce you. You sign the contract directly with the owner, and both of you confirm in Runcrate that it is signed.
The owner invoices you, and you pay their first invoice directly, as your contract sets. Runcrate never handles that money.
Delivered, then checked
- A Slurm cluster or virtual machines: the owner delivers onto Runcrate, and we set it up and check it (GPU count, interconnect and a multi-node network test) before it arrives in your Runcrate dashboard.
- Bare metal: the owner hands the machines over.
Either way, your request page gives you a short check to run on each machine (on each node, or inside each VM). It reads the GPUs, fabric and storage and shows whether each machine matches your request. Delivery counts once your check finds enough matching machines, once you confirm they work, or 72 hours after the owner marks them delivered with no problem reported, and never before your contract starts.
What protects you, and where it stops
- Owners are screened against sanctions lists, as you are.
- The cluster is tested at handover, and a complaint goes to a person at Runcrate.
- If the owner can't deliver, we can reopen your request with the other owners who quoted.
Your contract is with the owner, not with Runcrate. The owner is responsible for the hardware, its uptime and its support, and because Runcrate never holds your payments to the owner, any refund under that contract comes from the owner. For 24 months after your last contract with that owner ends, you deal with them only through Runcrate, renewals included.
Read how it works on Reserved clusters, or reserve a cluster now.