Compute spark spread
H100 SXM rents for $2.27/hr; power costs $0.049/hr in ERCOT → margin 97.9%.
GPU rental income minus the electricity it burns, hour by hour, on the grids we track. Same idea as a power plant's spark spread: the gap between what the output sells for and what the input costs. Power is the only cost counted; hardware, space and staff are not.
One bar per matched hour. Empty space is an hour where the rental or power price wasn't collected.
Last 24 matched hours
| Hour (UTC) | Rental /hr | Power /MWh | USD/CAD | Power /hr | Spread | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 3 23:00 | $2.27 Vast.ai median | $53.64 | — | $0.0488 | $2.219 | 97.9% |
| Oct 3 22:00 | $2.47 Vast.ai median | $51.21 | — | $0.0466 | $2.422 | 98.1% |
| Oct 3 21:00 | $3.11 Vast.ai median | $43.02 | — | $0.0391 | $3.074 | 98.7% |
| Oct 3 20:00 | $2.95 Vast.ai median | $46.38 | — | $0.0422 | $2.909 | 98.6% |
| Oct 3 19:00 | $2.89 Vast.ai median | $57.02 | — | $0.0519 | $2.842 | 98.2% |
| Oct 3 18:00 | $3.45 Vast.ai median | $52.84 | — | $0.0481 | $3.406 | 98.6% |
| Oct 3 17:00 | $3.03 Vast.ai median | $48.68 | — | $0.0443 | $2.990 | 98.5% |
| Oct 3 16:00 | $2.27 Vast.ai median | $52.71 | — | $0.0480 | $2.221 | 97.9% |
| Oct 3 15:00 | $2.13 Vast.ai median | $57.43 | — | $0.0523 | $2.081 | 97.5% |
| Oct 3 14:00 | $2.13 Vast.ai median | $56.69 | — | $0.0516 | $2.082 | 97.6% |
| Oct 3 13:00 | $2.13 Vast.ai median | $51.09 | — | $0.0465 | $2.087 | 97.8% |
| Oct 3 12:00 | $2.02 Vast.ai median | $46.32 | — | $0.0422 | $1.973 | 97.9% |
| Oct 3 11:00 | $2.04 Vast.ai median | $46.85 | — | $0.0426 | $2.002 | 97.9% |
| Oct 3 10:00 | $2.04 Vast.ai median | $47.20 | — | $0.0430 | $2.002 | 97.9% |
| Oct 3 09:00 | $2.04 Vast.ai median | $43.05 | — | $0.0392 | $2.004 | 98.1% |
| Oct 3 08:00 | $2.04 Vast.ai median | $44.45 | — | $0.0404 | $2.001 | 98.0% |
| Oct 3 07:00 | $2.04 Vast.ai median | $45.99 | — | $0.0419 | $2.001 | 98.0% |
| Oct 3 06:00 | $2.06 Vast.ai median | $51.46 | — | $0.0468 | $2.015 | 97.7% |
| Oct 3 05:00 | $1.79 Vast.ai median | $50.02 | — | $0.0455 | $1.742 | 97.5% |
| Oct 3 04:00 | $2.13 Vast.ai median | $46.51 | — | $0.0423 | $2.092 | 98.0% |
| Oct 3 03:00 | $2.33 Vast.ai median | $44.96 | — | $0.0409 | $2.293 | 98.3% |
| Oct 3 02:00 | $2.20 Vast.ai median | $43.18 | — | $0.0393 | $2.161 | 98.2% |
| Oct 3 01:00 | $2.13 Vast.ai median | $42.16 | — | $0.0384 | $2.096 | 98.2% |
| Oct 3 00:00 | $2.27 Vast.ai median | $41.92 | — | $0.0381 | $2.229 | 98.3% |
Methodology
Facility draw = board power × PUE. Board power is the manufacturer's maximum (H100 SXM: 700 W, spec sheet), so this is a conservative, full-load cost. PUE (power usage effectiveness) covers cooling and other overhead; 1.3 is the default and the slider runs 1.1–1.8.
Power cost per hour = facility kW × wholesale $/MWh ÷ 1000. Spread = rental − power cost. Margin = spread ÷ rental. The rental is the hourly Vast.ai median for that GPU, or, if there isn't one, the lowest published rate card in the same snapshot.
ERCOT prices are the real-time Hub Average in USD. Ontario prices are the real-time Ontario Zonal Price in CAD, converted at the Bank of Canada daily rate stored for that UTC day. On days the Bank doesn't publish (weekends, holidays), and before the day's rate is collected at 22:10 UTC, the most recent earlier rate is used, never one more than 5 days old. Each row shows the rate used and its date. Real-time prices can go negative; then power costs less than nothing and the margin goes above 100%.
Hours are matched on the same UTC hour. An hour missing either series is left out, never filled in. Wholesale energy is not a data centre's all-in power bill (no transmission, capacity or retail charges), so read this as the energy margin, not profit.
Exchange rate: Bank of Canada, Valet API. Converted to USD by GridCompute.
Data: /api/spread/latest · /api/spread/history · see also power tracker, futures basis, API reference.