Quick answer
H100 vs H200: is the H200 worth the extra cost?
H100 vs H200: the H200 is worth the extra cost when your model does not fit in 80 GB. It has 141 GB and 1.43 times the bandwidth, with the same SXM peak compute. As of 29 October 2026 it cost 33% more per hour at the lowest on-demand prices we found, yet Llama 3.1 70B in FP8 fits one H200 instead of two H100s. GPUwithCrypto rents both for crypto, no KYC: H200 $3.07/hour, H100 $2.32/hour.
How do the H100 and H200 specs compare?
Official NVIDIA figures, read on 29 October 2026. Tensor figures are dense peak TFLOPS. NVIDIA prints Hopper Tensor values only with sparsity, so dense = NVIDIA's figure ÷ 2, marked (d). Peak figures are not benchmarks.
| Spec | H100 SXM | H100 PCIe | H200 SXM | H200 NVL (PCIe) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | 80 GB HBM3 | 80 GB HBM2e | 141 GB HBM3e | 141 GB HBM3e |
| Memory bandwidth | 3,350 GB/s | 2,000 GB/s | 4,800 GB/s | 4,800 GB/s |
| FP16 / BF16 Tensor, dense | 989.5 TFLOPS (d) | — | 989.5 TFLOPS (d) | 835.5 TFLOPS (d) |
| FP8 Tensor, dense | 1,979 TFLOPS (d) | — | 1,979 TFLOPS (d) | 1,670.5 TFLOPS (d) |
| NVLink | 900 GB/s | 600 GB/s (bridge) | 900 GB/s | 900 GB/s (2- or 4-way bridge) |
| PCIe | Gen5 | Gen5 | Gen5 | Gen5 |
| Max power | 700 W | 350 W | 700 W | 600 W |
| Launch | 2022 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
(d) = NVIDIA's 'with sparsity' figure ÷ 2. NVIDIA labels the H200 table 'Preliminary specifications. May be subject to change.' No current official page gives H100 PCIe Tensor values as dense or sparse.
Is the H200 faster than the H100?
Not in raw math. The H200 SXM and the H100 SXM share the same dense peak: 989.5 TFLOPS BF16 and 1,979 TFLOPS FP8. The H200 changes the memory: 141 GB instead of 80 GB (1.76 times) and 4,800 GB/s instead of 3,350 GB/s (1.43 times). These are NVIDIA's peak figures, not benchmarks.
- Compute-bound jobs (training, long prompt prefill) get no peak advantage from the H200.
- Memory-bound decoding can gain up to the 1.43× bandwidth ratio at peak.
- Capacity is the big gain. A model that needs two H100s runs on one H200, with no split across GPUs.
The H200 NVL is a PCIe card with the same 141 GB, a 600 W limit and lower peaks (835.5 TFLOPS BF16 dense). Instances have 1 to 8 GPUs depending on the host. Before you start, the dashboard shows each host’s country, GPU count, form factor (SXM or PCIe) and interconnect.
Which models fit on one H200 but not on one H100?
Rule of thumb: memory ≈ parameters (billions) × bytes per parameter × 1.2, with 2 bytes for BF16, 1 for FP8 and 0.5 for 4-bit (EleutherAI). Long contexts add KV cache: Llama 3.1 70B uses 320 KiB per token in BF16, so one 131,072-token context adds 42.9 GB. Formula and more models: VRAM guide.
| Model and precision | Memory needed | H100 80GB | H200 141GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 8B, BF16 | 19.2 GB | 1 GPU | 1 GPU |
| Llama 3.1 70B, QLoRA fine-tune | 52.5 GB | 1 GPU | 1 GPU |
| Llama 3.1 70B, FP8 | 84 GB | 2 GPUs | 1 GPU |
| Qwen2.5 72B, FP8 | 87.2 GB | 2 GPUs | 1 GPU |
| Llama 3.1 70B, FP8 + one 128K-token context | ≈ 113 GB | 2 GPUs | 1 GPU |
| Llama 3.1 70B, BF16 | 168 GB | 3 GPUs | 2 GPUs |
| Llama 3.1 405B, 4-bit | 243 GB | 4 GPUs | 2 GPUs |
| Llama 3.1 405B, FP8 | 486 GB | 7 GPUs | 4 GPUs |
| DeepSeek-V3 / R1, FP8 (native) | ≈ 805 GB | 11 GPUs (over one 8-GPU node) | 6 GPUs (one 8-GPU node) |
Naive fit = the number of cards whose total memory holds the estimate; it ignores tensor-parallel overhead and memory reserved by the driver. DeepSeek publishes V3 and R1 weights in FP8; all 671B parameters must be resident although 37B are active per token. KV cache figures use the Llama 3 paper's architecture (80 layers, 8 KV heads, head size 128).
How much do the H100 and H200 cost per hour?
Per GPU-hour, USD. 'Lowest' and 'median' are self-serve on-demand list prices from GPUwithCrypto's price check of 29 October 2026; spot and marketplace prices are excluded. Vast.ai is a marketplace, shown apart. All GPUs: pricing.
| GPU | GPUwithCrypto | Lowest on-demand elsewhere | Median on-demand | Providers checked | Vast.ai lowest offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H100 80GB | $2.32/hour | $2.73 (Massed Compute) | $4.16 | 16 | $1.73 (H100 SXM) |
| H200 141GB | $3.07/hour | $3.62 (Massed Compute, H200 NVL) | $5.29 | 13 | $3.00 (H200 NVL) |
Prices checked on
Massed Compute does not state the form factor of its $2.73 H100. Vast.ai figures: Vast.ai's public price feed, cheapest rentable offer on 29 October 2026. Taxes excluded.
Is the H200 cheaper per GB of memory?
Yes. According to GPUwithCrypto's price check of 29 October 2026, the H200 costs 33% more per hour than the H100 but 25% less per GB of memory. Computed as hourly price ÷ GB:
- H200: 2.57 cents per GB-hour at the lowest on-demand price ($3.62 ÷ 141), 3.75 cents at the median ($5.29 ÷ 141).
- H100: 3.41 cents per GB-hour at the lowest price ($2.73 ÷ 80), 5.20 cents at the median ($4.16 ÷ 80).
At the median the H200 is 28% cheaper per GB. At GPUwithCrypto the same division gives $0.022 and $0.029, each GPU priced at least 15% under its named on-demand reference.
For bandwidth, the lowest-priced H200 gives 8% more GB/s per dollar than the lowest-priced H100 (1,326 vs 1,227 GB/s per $/hour, with the H100 at its SXM figure).
What does it cost to serve Llama 70B on H100s vs an H200?
One H200 costs less than two H100s. Worked example (assumption): you serve Llama 3.1 70B in FP8 (≈ 84 GB) around the clock. That takes two H100s or one H200. At the lowest prices we found, one H200 costs 34% less than two H100s; at the median, 36% less.
Two H100s do give twice the peak math of one H200. That only matters if your serving is compute-bound at large batch.
Llama 3.1 70B in FP8: two H100s or one H200
| Price basis | 2 × H100, 24 h | 1 × H200, 24 h | 2 × H100, 720 h | 1 × H200, 720 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPUwithCrypto | 2 × $55.68 | $73.68 | 2 × $1,670.40 | $2,210.40 |
| Lowest on-demand elsewhere | $131.04 | $86.88 | $3,931.20 | $2,606.40 |
| Median on-demand | $199.68 | $126.96 | $5,990.40 | $3,808.80 |
Prices checked on
Running hours are an assumption. GPU time only; storage and network extra where the provider charges them.
When should I rent the H100 instead?
When the model fits in 80 GB. Then the H200 must run your job 1.33 times faster to pay off at the lowest prices ($3.62 ÷ $2.73), or 1.27 times at the median ($5.29 ÷ $4.16). Our two prices keep about the same 1.33 ratio, because each sits at least 15% under its named reference ($3.62 and $2.73).
- Compute-bound work that fits in 80 GB: the H100 wins. Peak math is equal, the price is not.
- Bandwidth-bound decoding that fits in 80 GB: the H200's 1.43× peak bandwidth edge sits just above the 1.33× price gap. Test your own workload before you commit to a month.
- Fine-tuning 8B models, QLoRA on 70B, notebooks: the H100, or a cheaper A100 80GB.
Rent the H200 for 70B-class FP8 serving on one GPU, long contexts, 405B models on fewer GPUs, and DeepSeek-V3 or R1 on a single 8-GPU node.
Questions about the H100 and the H200
Is the H200 faster than the H100?
Not for math: the SXM versions share the same dense peak, 989.5 TFLOPS BF16 and 1,979 TFLOPS FP8 (derived from NVIDIA's sparse figures). The H200 has 1.43 times the memory bandwidth and 1.76 times the memory, which helps memory-bound decoding and large models.
How much more does an H200 cost per hour than an H100?
On 29 October 2026 the lowest self-serve on-demand prices we found were $3.62 for an H200 and $2.73 for an H100, 33% apart. The medians were $5.29 and $4.16. GPUwithCrypto charges $3.07/hour and $2.32/hour.
Can I run Llama 3.1 70B on a single H200?
Yes in FP8: about 84 GB with the × 1.2 rule, leaving room for KV cache in 141 GB. In BF16 it needs about 168 GB, so two H200s. On H100s the FP8 version needs two cards.
Should I rent two H100s or one H200?
For a model between 80 and 141 GB, one H200: it costs 34% less than two H100s at the lowest prices of 29 October 2026 and avoids splitting the model. Two H100s make sense when you need twice the peak math.
Can I pay for an H200 with crypto?
Yes. GPUwithCrypto rents the H200 for BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC, with no KYC. Of the 13 providers with an on-demand H200 price on 29 October 2026, 4 accept crypto: Massed Compute, Paperspace/DigitalOcean, Spheron and RunPod, which asks for KYC first.
Rent an H200 or an H100 with crypto
H200 $3.07/hour · H100 $2.32/hour · billed per minute · no KYC.
Sources (10)
- NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPU — NVIDIA (read 2026-10-29)
- NVIDIA H200 NVL — NVIDIA (read 2026-10-29)
- NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU — NVIDIA (read 2026-10-29)
- NVIDIA H100 PCIe product brief (PB-11133-001) — NVIDIA (read 2026-10-29)
- The Llama 3 Herd of Models (Table 3) — arXiv (read 2026-10-29)
- Transformer Math 101 — EleutherAI (read 2026-10-29)
- DeepSeek-V3 model card — DeepSeek / Hugging Face (read 2026-10-29)
- Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct model card — Qwen / Hugging Face (read 2026-10-29)
- Massed Compute pricing vm.massedcompute.com/pricing — Massed Compute (read 2026-10-29)
- Vast.ai public GPU pricing feed — Vast.ai (read 2026-10-29)