Cost Comparison: Prepaid vs. On Demand

Rescale provides various pricing plans for high-performance computing (HPC) simulations, including On Demand, Low Priority, and Prepaid options, with the Prepaid plan offering the lowest cost per hour in exchange for upfront payment. The decision to opt for a Prepaid plan depends on the utilization rate, with a break-even point at 27% utilization for the Nickel core type over a three-year period, leading to substantial savings if utilization is higher. The analysis involves determining the number of Prepaid cores to purchase based on a forecast of compute jobs, taking into account the total On Demand cost, Prepaid cost, and residual On Demand cost. By calculating residual core hours and performing programmatic analysis, users can optimize their hardware costs by maximizing Prepaid core utilization. The complexity of this calculation is managed through algorithms that account for overlapping intervals of compute jobs, and Rescale plans to introduce a Prepaid core calculator to assist users in making cost-effective decisions based on historical usage data.