FLEXIBLE RESERVATIONS
Book the capacity. Use what you need. Credit back for the rest.
THE THREE PRICES
Every reservation has three prices
Together they determine the real cost of your compute: the rate you commit to, and the two rates that pay you back.
01
$2.15 / GPU-hr
Unit Price
The rate your reservation’s initial cost is calculated at. This is the maximum you’d pay if you used the reservation in full, with no pausing or returning.
02
$0.43 / GPU-hr
Pause Credit
The rate you earn back for capacity you temporarily pause. Credit accumulates automatically while it’s off. Restart anytime; the capacity stays yours.
03
$1.08 / GPU-hr
Return Credit
The rate you earn back for capacity you return permanently, shrinking the reservation as work completes or future needs become clear.
Rates shown are illustrative. Live offers track the market for each GPU type, region, and term.
HOW IT WORKS
A four-week reservation, in practice
Reserve eight H100 nodes for four weeks, then run them your way. Every hour a node sits paused or returned comes back to you as credit.
Interactive machines work the same hours your team does. Nights and weekends shouldn't bill like Wednesdays.
Illustrative: 8×(8-H100) nodes · 4 weeks · unit $2.15, pause credit $0.43, return credit $1.08 per GPU-hr
FLEXIBILITY TIERS
We quote every reservation two ways. You pick the trade-off.
HIGH FLEXIBILITY
Higher unit price, generous buyback
More generous pause and return credit in exchange for a higher up-front rate. Best when you expect more utilization variability.
LOW FLEXIBILITY
Lowest unit price, smaller buyback
The best rate when you expect to use most of the reservation, and you still get some flexibility for free on top of a market-rate reservation.
COMMON PATTERNS
How teams put the flexibility to work
01
Reserve for a launch you can’t forecast
You know the ship date, not the traffic. Reserve enough to cover the good case; if reality lands smaller, return the extra nodes and put the credit toward whatever you run next.
02
Make your idle hours productive
If your utilization chart has troughs, you’re paying full price for idle GPUs. On Mithril, pausing releases them back into the Spot market and the idle hours come back as credit.
03
Switch GPU type mid-flight
You reserved H100s, then two weeks in the benchmarks say H200s fit better. Return the H100s for credit and roll it into an H200 reservation at current market rates.
04
Alternate training and development
Training needs the whole fleet; the analysis days after don’t. Pause most of the nodes between runs and the reservation’s cost tracks the shape of your actual work.
HOW IT’S PRICED
Market-priced, like everything else on Mithril
Offers track the market
Reservation offers reflect current market conditions for the GPU type, region, duration, and start time.
Longer runs price lower
Longer reservations generally price lower, and higher flexibility prices above lower flexibility for the same capacity.
Credit for your next big moment
Credit is banked compute. Save it for your product’s next viral moment, spend it bursting up on Spot, or roll it into your next reservation. It stays good for six months.
FAQ
Flexible reservations, answered
How is a flexible reservation different from a standard reservation?
A standard reservation bills for the full term no matter what. A flexible reservation adds buyback: pause idle nodes or return capacity early, and the idle hours come back as credit.
Can I pause a reservation and resume later?
Yes. Pausing releases the node to the Spot pool and starts accruing pause credit; reclaim it whenever you need it back. Persistent volumes and your boot disk survive a pause; only local scratch space is cleared.
Can I apply credits to Spot instances?
Yes. Credits earned from pausing or returning reserved capacity can be spent on Spot bids as well as future reservations.
What happens to my credits if I don’t use them?
Credits are valid for six months.
What’s the minimum reservation length?
Self-serve reservations start at just a few hours and run up to two weeks. For longer terms or larger blocks, talk to sales.