joulemathGuides · , updated
How to rent out your GPU, and what it really earns after power
A rented RTX 4090 keeps roughly $70 to $150 a month after household power. An RTX 3090 keeps close to nothing. Your power price and how often the card is busy decide it.
How much does renting out a GPU earn per month?
Earnings minus power, 30 days. Before card wear, internet and tax.
| Card and platform | Gross | Net, US power | Net, EU power |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 4090, Salad ($0.29/hr) | $209 | $130 | $72 |
| RTX 4090, Vast, rented 25% | $68 | $39 | $17 |
| RTX 4090, Vast, rented 50% | $137 | $91 | $57 |
| RTX 4090, Vast, rented 80% | $219 | $153 | $105 |
| RTX 5090, Salad ($0.29/hr) | $209 | $114 | $43 |
| RTX 5090, Vast, rented 50% | $191 | $137 | $97 |
| RTX 3090, Salad ($0.082/hr) | $59 | -$6 | -$55 |
| RTX 3090, Vast, rented 50% | $62 | $23 | -$6 |
How we got these (our math, check it):
- Salad: Salad's own average earnings per hour switched on, Oct 20 to 26, 2026, for single-GPU machines on at least 4 hours a day. Includes idle hours and bandwidth sharing. We charge full power every hour.
- Vast.ai: median renter price of 64 single-GPU on-demand offers returned by Vast's public API on Oct 27, 2026, 10:08 CET (4090 $0.475, 5090 $0.662, 3090 $0.216), divided by 1.25 because Vast says renter prices are "typically about 25% above what hosts earn". Utilization is our guess, shown at 25%, 50% and 80% (Vast's own example uses 80%).
- Power: whole PC at card power plus 150 W (ours): 600 W for a 4090 (450 W card), 500 W for a 3090 (350 W card), 725 W for a 5090 (575 W card). Card watts are NVIDIA specs. 100 W when idle on Vast (ours).
- Prices: US average residential 18.16¢/kWh (EIA, August 2026). EU average household €0.2832/kWh (Eurostat, H1 2026), $0.3168 at the ECB rate of 1.1188 (Oct 26, 2026).
Plug your own wattage, rate and utilization into the per-kW calculator.
What do renters pay for a 4090, 5090 or 3090 right now?
A fresh read on November 3, 2026, so you can see how rates moved since the table above. These are renter prices per GPU-hour, not what the host keeps.
| Card | Vast.ai median, 1 GPU on-demand | Vast.ai host estimate (÷ 1.25) | RunPod Community | RunPod Secure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 5090 | $0.603 | ~$0.48 | $0.69 | $1.19 |
| RTX 4090 | $0.429 | ~$0.34 | $0.34 | $0.89 |
| RTX 3090 | $0.191 | ~$0.15 | $0.22 | $0.50 |
Vast.ai: median of the first 64 single-GPU on-demand offers per card returned by Vast's public offers API on November 3, 2026 at 10:23 CET (lows: 4090 $0.136, 5090 $0.406, 3090 $0.096). Host estimate is our math, using Vast's own line that renter prices run "typically about 25% above what hosts earn" (Vast.ai). RunPod: on-demand prices from runpod.io/pricing, page dated October 28, 2026. RunPod is a place to rent GPUs, not to list a home card (see below).
The 4090 Vast median slipped from $0.475 on October 27 to $0.429, so a 4090 host now keeps roughly $0.34 an hour while rented, down from about $0.38. More cards and live rates on the RTX 4090 page and GPU rental prices.
Where can you rent out your GPU?
Disclosure: the Vast.ai link below is an affiliate link. If you sign up through it, joulemath may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change any number on this page.
| Platform | Open to home GPUs? | What you need | Who sets price, fee | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salad | Yes. Runs on your Windows PC when it sits idle. | Windows 10/11 64-bit. 8 GB+ VRAM (RTX 2070 and up), 8 GB RAM, 70 GB free disk, 15 Mbps up and down for container jobs. | Salad sets rates. No host fee line; it publishes what machines actually earned. | Salad Balance, redeemed for PayPal (some countries) or gift cards. |
| Vast.ai (affiliate link) | Yes, but as a dedicated Linux server. | Ubuntu Server, NVIDIA Maxwell or newer with more than 7 GB VRAM, RAM at least 95% of VRAM, SSD, 500 Mbps up and down, public IPv4 with ports forwarded. No gaming or mining on it. | You set the price. No host fee since June 2024; renters pay about 25% on top. | Weekly invoice on Fridays from $20, via Wise, PayPal or Stripe. First payout up to two weeks. |
| RunPod Community Cloud | No. Closed to new hosts. | Secure Cloud partners need 100 kW+ of GPU servers in a Tier III+ data center. | RunPod sets on-demand prices. | Not published. |
| TensorDock | No. New hardware must sit in a data center. | 1 Gbps, static IP, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB NVMe per GPU. | Not published. | Monthly, to your bank, 7 to 10 days to settle. |
So for one gaming PC, Salad is the easy path. Vast pays more per rented hour but wants a box you don't touch.
Enter your Vast.ai machine_id to check live GPU occupancy, compare your hourly rate against marketplace medians, and project 36-month net return after depreciation and inflation. Stored only in your browser.
How often will your GPU actually be rented?
- You only earn on Vast while someone rents the card. Vast does not publish occupancy; hosts see it only after they list a machine.
- Salad's number already counts idle hours. Its 4090s had a job running 98% of switched-on hours that week. The 3090 was at 95%.
- An idle PC still draws power. At 25% rented, a 4090 on Vast barely beats a 3090.
- Rates move week to week. Treat any number here as a snapshot.
What are the risks of renting out your GPU?
- Power price. At EU household prices a 3090 loses money. Breakeven for a 3090 on Salad is about $0.16/kWh with our watts.
- Lock-in. On Vast, a rental's price and end date are fixed. You must keep the machine up until every contract ends.
- Reliability score. Vast scores uptime and connection stability. Below 90% you lose verification, and Vast says the score affects what you earn.
- Network. Vast needs a public IP and open ports. Machines behind CGNAT can't host. Salad's earnings include sharing your internet connection.
- Wear and heat. Running a card near full load all day ages fans and heats the room. Not in our numbers.
- Tax. This is income. TensorDock, for example, files 1099s for US hosts over $600 a year.
FAQ
What does renting out your GPU mean?
You let a platform run other people's AI or compute jobs on your graphics card and get paid per hour. Salad runs jobs on your Windows PC when it sits idle. Vast.ai lists a dedicated Linux machine that renters connect to directly.
How much can you make renting out an RTX 4090?
About $209 a month gross on Salad at its $0.29 per hour average for Oct 20 to 26, 2026. After power for a 600 W PC that is about $130 at the US average price and about $72 at the EU average.
Is renting out an RTX 3090 worth it?
Barely. Salad's 3090 average was $0.082 per hour, about $59 a month, which is less than the power for a 500 W PC at US or EU average household prices. On Vast at 50% rented it nets about $23 a month at US power.
Which platform is best for a home GPU?
Salad is the simplest for a normal Windows PC. Vast.ai lets you set your own price but needs a dedicated Ubuntu server with a public IP and fast internet. RunPod Community Cloud is closed to new hosts and TensorDock wants data center hardware.
Can I game while my GPU is rented?
Not at the same time. Salad starts jobs after your PC has been idle (10 minutes by default) and asks you to close games. Vast wants a dedicated machine; gaming or mining on it fails verification.
Does a GPU earn more per kW than Bitcoin mining?
Gross, yes. A 600 W RTX 4090 PC at $0.29 per hour grosses about $11.60 per kW per day. A kW of Antminer S21 XP grossed about $2.65 per day on Oct 27, 2026. The ASIC kW costs far less hardware and earns every hour it is on.
Related: mine vs AI per-kW calculator · GPU rental prices (Oct 21) · H100 rent price per kW · RTX 4090 rent price, used price and payback · hashprice vs GPU rent · GPU defaults.
Sources
- Salad earning rates, week Oct 20 to 26, 2026, data updated Oct 27, 2026, 09:08 CET: salad.com/earning-rates (data file earning-rates.json). Read Oct 27, 2026.
- Salad requirements: support.salad.com. Payouts: PayPal redemption. Idle start: auto-start guide. Read Oct 27, 2026.
- Vast.ai offers: public API console.vast.ai/api/v0/bundles, Oct 27, 2026, 10:08 CET, 64 offers per card (API limit, a sample, not the whole market). 4090 low/median/high $0.38 / $0.475 / $0.81, 5090 $0.40 / $0.662 / $1.14, 3090 $0.12 / $0.216 / $0.45.
- Vast.ai host earnings article, May 18, 2026 ("about 25% above what hosts earn", 5090 hosts $0.30 to $0.60/hr, contract rules): vast.ai. Hosting fee removed: June 2024 update. Requirements: docs.vast.ai verification. Payouts: docs.vast.ai payment. Read Oct 27, 2026.
- RunPod hosting docs, last version before removal on Apr 1, 2026: github.com/runpod/docs.
- TensorDock host requirements: tensordock.com/host. Payouts and 1099s: TensorDock FAQ. Read Oct 27, 2026.
- Card power: NVIDIA RTX 4090 (450 W), RTX 3090 (350 W), RTX 5090 (575 W). Read Oct 27, 2026.
- US power: EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A, August 2026. EU power: Eurostat nrg_pc_204, H1 2026, 2,500 to 4,999 kWh band, all taxes. FX: ECB, Oct 26, 2026.
- Bitcoin: mempool.space API, Oct 27, 2026, 10:11 CET (difficulty 140.58 T, 3.1406 BTC average reward over 144 blocks, BTC $79,692), hashprice about $0.0358 per TH/s per day. S21 XP at 13.5 J/TH.
Rates change weekly. This page is updated by hand. Nothing here is financial or tax advice.