GPU Rental Profitability Calculator

where $H_r$ is the number of hours rented a year; 8760 is the number of hours in a year; $a$ is the uptime and $r$ the occupancy; $R_{\text{net}}$ is the net income a year: what $g$ GPUs earn at the price $p$ in $H_r$ hours, plus 12 months of other income $R_o$, less the marketplace fee $f$.

Rented hours 8,760 × 99.5% × 60% = 5,230 h a year; income 1 × $0.80 × 5,230 h = $4,184 a year; fee 0%, $0; net income $4,184 a year.

$R_{\text{gross}}$ is what renters pay in a year; where the marketplace keeps a share $f$ of it, the net income is that much smaller. The occupancy is the host’s own estimate.

• Every GPU is rented for the same hours, at the price entered, all year.
• Reserved-rental discounts and interruptible bids are left out.

where $D$ is the depreciation a year: the investment $P_0$, the rig’s price $P$ with the one-off setup $P_{\text{set}}$, less its salvage value $S$, the share $s$ of $P_0$, over the economic life $N$ in years; $\text{AAI}$ is the average annual investment, the rig’s mean value over its life: the investment less its salvage value, times $N + 1$ over 2 times $N$, plus the salvage value; $I$, $U$ and $M$ are the interest, insurance and repairs a year, at the rates $i$, $u$ and $m$.

Invested 7,480 + 100 = $7,580, falling each year by 37% of its value for 3 years, to a salvage value of $1,895 (25.00%); depreciation 37% × 7,580 = $2,805 in the first year, smaller every year after, on average (7,580 − 1,895) ÷ 3 = $1,895 a year; average investment $5,121, interest 7% = $358, insurance 0.5% = $26; repairs 3% = $227 a year.

These are a machine’s fixed costs by the machine rate method, as in the machine hour rate calculator: straight-line depreciation, and interest and insurance on the average annual investment, $\text{AAI} = (P - S)(N + 1)/(2N) + S$ (FAO, 1992, 3.4.2). Fixed costs “do not stop when the work stops” (FAO, 1992, 3.2.1): the rig costs them rented or idle. With a yearly rate, $d$ is the share of the rig’s value at the start of each year written off in that year, so after $n$ years the value is $P_0(1 - d)^n$; the salvage value $S$ is the value left after the economic life $N$, $D$ the yearly depreciation averaged over it, and $\text{AAI}$, the mean of the values at the start of each year, $(P_0 - S)/(N\,d)$.

• From the economic life, the rig loses value evenly over it and is worth its salvage value at the end of it.
• With a yearly rate, depreciation is declining-balance: the rate applies each year to the rig’s value at the start of that year, so the charge is higher in the early years and lower later, and the value left at the end of the economic life is the salvage value (Miyata, 1980, p. 4). The costs a month use the depreciation averaged over the life, and interest and insurance on the average of the values at the start of each year, as from the life. For a life that is not a whole number of years, the same formulas are used with that life. That is this calculator’s convention.
• Repairs cost the same share of the investment every year.

where $E$ is the electricity’s cost a year; metered, the power when rented $W_{\text{load}}$ for the $H_r$ hours rented and the power when idle $W_{\text{idle}}$ for the other $H_i$ hours, times the power overhead $k$ and the electricity price $e$, divided by the UPS efficiency $\eta$, 1 in colocation; contracted, the contracted power $W_c$ for all 8760 hours.

Energy 0.9 kW × 5,230 h + 0.25 kW × 3,530 h = 5,589 kWh a year; × $0.18/kWh × 1 ÷ 90% = $1,118 a year.

NVIDIA gives the GeForce RTX 5090 a total graphics power of 575 W and a required system power of 1,000 W (NVIDIA, 2026): what the card draws at full load, and the power supply it recommends for a whole PC built around it. The power when rented lies between the two: the card at full load, the rest of the machine, and the power supply’s losses.

• Metered: the rig draws the power when rented in every hour rented and the power when idle in every other hour of the year, offline hours included.
• The electricity price is the same at every hour of the day.
• Contracted: the reserved power is billed for every hour of the year, whatever the rig draws.

where $\Pi$ is the profit a year, the net income $R_{\text{net}}$ less the costs $C$; $C$ is the sum of the year’s electricity $E$, depreciation $D$, interest $I$, insurance $U$, repairs $M$ and network $C_{\text{net}}$, with the UPS $C_{\text{ups}}$ on your premises or the rack space $C_{\text{rack}}$ in colocation; $p^{*}$ is the break-even price per GPU-hour, at which $\Pi = 0$: the costs $C$ grossed up for the fee $f$, less 12 months of other income $R_o$, over $g$ GPUs and $H_r$ hours rented.

Net income $4,184 less costs $4,198 = −$14 a year, −$1 a month. Break-even price (4,198 ÷ 100%) ÷ (1 × 5,230 h) = $0.8027 per GPU-hour.

$c_h$ is what each rented GPU-hour costs. The break-even occupancy $r^{*}$ splits the costs into $F$, those that do not change with the hours rented, and $\mu$, the net income each rented hour adds after its energy; with contracted power the energy is all fixed, $F = C - 12\,(1 - f)\,R_o$ and $\mu = (1 - f)\,g\,p$. There is no break-even occupancy where $\mu$ is not above zero, or where $r^{*}$ is above 100%.

The cash profit $\Pi_{\text{cash}}$ is the profit with the depreciation and the interest added back, and on your premises the UPS’s write-off replaced by its batteries’ replacement; the payback $t_p$ is the investment, with the UPS, divided by it, in years. With financing, the payback is when the cash balance first covers the loan still owed, from the balance by month: the loan’s interest delays it. The figure and the table repeat the calculation at each occupancy and price.

The balance by month: the cash balance starts at minus the money put in, the investment and on your premises the UPS, less the loan; each month adds the cash profit a month, $\Pi_{\text{cash}}/12$, less the loan’s payment $A$ while it is repaid. The net position adds the equipment’s value, the investment written down to its salvage value over its economic life, evenly or, with a yearly rate, by a share of each year’s value, and on your premises the UPS to its batteries over its own, and takes off the loan still owed. With own capital there is no payment; at a zero interest rate the loan is repaid in equal parts, $L\,P_0/n$.

• The year’s income and costs are spread evenly over its months.
• The profit is before income tax.
• Over the five years the rig and the UPS are bought once and only the UPS batteries are replaced, their cost spread evenly; after its economic life the rig earns and costs as before, its value staying at its salvage value.
• A loan’s interest rate is the interest rate in Rig, its payments equal and monthly; the profit a month keeps the machine rate’s interest on the average investment.