Azure ND H100 v5 Pricing per Hour 2025: Complete Breakdown

As of 2025, the Azure ND96isr H100 v5 virtual machine, equipped with 8 NVIDIA H100 80GB GPUs, is priced at approximately $98.32 per hour on-demand in U.S. regions. This price includes compute, memory, and storage resources, translating to about $12.29 per GPU per hour. Azure also offers spot pricing for this VM at around $70-$75 per hour, providing cost savings but with some availability risk. Pricing varies by region and usage plans, while reserved instances and savings options can further reduce costs. Cyfuture Cloud offers competitive NVIDIA H100 GPU hosting with flexible pricing targeted toward high-performance AI workloads, making it a worthy alternative for GPU-intensive tasks.

Overview of Azure ND H100 v5 VM

The Azure NVIDIA H100 v5 is a cutting-edge virtual machine series designed for high-end AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Its flagship ND96isr H100 v5 model features:

8 × NVIDIA H100 80GB GPUs

96 vCPUs (Intel Sapphire Rapids)

1,900 GB RAM

High-speed NVLink and InfiniBand interconnects with 3.2 Tbps bandwidth

Massive local NVMe storage (~28 TB)

This architecture enables fast inter-GPU communication crucial for distributed training and model parallelism. It caters specifically to large language model training, scientific simulations, and real-time AI inference at scale.

Azure ND H100 v5 Pricing Details

Azure lists the ND96isr H100 v5 VM at around $98.32 per hour on-demand. This rate bundles all compute, GPU, memory, and storage services required for the VM. Pricing works out to roughly $12.29 per GPU per hour when dividing evenly across the 8 GPUs.

Spot pricing on Azure offers discounted rates at about $70 to $75 per hour, ideal for flexible, non-critical workloads with potential pre-emption risk. Additionally, Azure's reserved instances, savings plans, and long-term commitment options can lower prices significantly (up to 60% in some cases).

Regional price adjustments apply, so costs may vary across different Azure data centers worldwide, including India and Europe.

Factors Influencing Pricing

Several variables determine the final cost of using Azure ND H100 v5 instances:

Instance Configuration: The number of vCPUs, memory size, and GPU count impact pricing.

Region: Operational costs and demand fluctuate, affecting regional pricing.

Usage Type: On-demand vs. spot vs. reserved instances influence hourly rates.

Additional Services: Data storage, outbound network traffic, and premium support add to total expenses.

Duration and Commitment: Long-term reserved VM instances offer cost benefits over pay-as-you-go models.

Understanding these factors helps optimize budget allocation for AI projects running on ND H100 v5 VMs.

Comparison with Other Cloud Providers

While Azure’s ND H100 v5 is among the top-tier GPU VM offerings, alternative cloud vendors also provide NVIDIA H100 GPUs with varied pricing:

Cyfuture Cloud integrates NVIDIA H100 GPUs with competitive pricing and regional availability, providing a robust alternative to hyperscale cloud providers, especially for users needing customized GPU hosting and improved latency.

Use Cases for Azure ND H100 v5

Azure ND H100 v5 VMs excel for:

Large Language Model Training: Ideal for training transformer-based models like GPT and BERT due to high inter-GPU bandwidth.

Distributed Training: NVLink and InfiniBand enable seamless GPU communication.

High-Fidelity Simulations: Financial modeling, medical imaging, and scientific simulations benefit from the dense compute resources.

AI-Driven SaaS Platforms: Supports scalable real-time inference and machine learning workflows.

These applications justify the premium pricing through significant performance gains and scalability.

Cost Optimization Strategies

To manage expenses while using Azure ND H100 v5:

Leverage Spot VMs for non-critical or interruptible workloads.

Use reserved instances and savings plans to reduce hourly costs for long-term commitments.

Implement autoscaling to shut down idle VMs during off-peak hours.

Utilize the Azure pricing calculator for precise budget forecasting.

Consider hybrid architectures integrating Cyfuture Cloud for regional GPU Hosting and backup.

These approaches can optimize resource use and lower the total cost of ownership for GPU projects.

Conclusion

Azure's ND H100 v5 instances represent state-of-the-art GPU compute power for AI and HPC, priced at about $98.32 per hour on-demand. While this is premium terrain, careful use of spot pricing, reserved instances, and autoscaling can reduce expenses substantially. Alternative providers, including Cyfuture Cloud, provide flexible NVIDIA H100 hosting solutions with competitive pricing and regional advantages. For enterprises scaling AI workloads in 2025, understanding these pricing structures and leveraging multiple cloud options can enhance performance and cost-efficiency.

Choosing the right cloud GPU infrastructure, whether Azure ND H100 v5 or Cyfuture Cloud, depends on workload needs, budget, and performance goals.