Google Colab vs Aquanode
Hosted notebooks with allocated GPUs, sold as compute units
Colab is the best free way to touch a GPU and a fine notebook environment. It is also the sharpest example of the problem we exist for: Google's own FAQ states that GPU types vary over time, resources are not guaranteed, and idle VMs are deleted, so the environment you built is gone and you rebuild it next session.
Where Google Colab wins
- A genuinely free tier, zero setup, and a notebook interface that is the right tool for teaching, prototyping and sharing work.
- Deep integration with Google Drive and the wider Google ecosystem.
Where Aquanode wins
- A specific GPU you chose, not one allocated to you. Colab's FAQ is explicit that the types of GPUs available vary over time and that resources are not guaranteed.
- The VM is not recycled out from under you. Colab documents that virtual machines are deleted when idle and have a maximum enforced lifetime; your installed packages go with them.
- Your setup outlives the GPU you rented it on. Save the environment (custom nodes, model weights, packages, the config you spent an evening getting right) and bring it back up later on a completely different provider, instead of reinstalling it from scratch every session.
- Supply moved, the price moved, or the region ran dry. Your environment follows you out. It is not stranded in the account that happened to create it, which is the part that makes leaving any single vendor cheap.
Google Colab pricing
We could not verify a Google Colab price first-party, so this page publishes none. Colab does not sell GPU time by the hour. Paid plans are denominated in compute units, and Google's own FAQ states the consumption limits are not published because they vary over time. There is therefore no per-GPU hourly rate to compare against, which is itself the honest finding.
Checked https://research.google.com/colaboratory/faq.html on 2026-09-19.
What we do not claim
Restoring an environment requires a snapshot that already exists. Stopping a deployment yourself captures it on the way out, so you can bring it back later on any provider. A provider-side termination is different: it is only recoverable if you had already switched automated snapshots on for that deployment, and it costs you the work since the last one. Automated snapshots are opt-in, nothing runs until you start it, and with none running there is nothing to restore.
`aq deploy --snapshot <id>` rents the cheapest matching GPU and restores your snapshot onto it, including onto a different provider than the one it came from. Creating the snapshot is a separate step today: the standalone ogre CLI on the box writes it.
Google Colab vs Aquanode: common questions
Why does my Colab environment reset?
By design. Google's FAQ states that virtual machines are deleted when idle for a while and have a maximum enforced lifetime, and that the GPU types available vary over time. Anything you installed on the VM goes with it unless you saved it to Drive.
Can I keep a ComfyUI or custom-node setup between Colab sessions?
Not without rebuilding it or scripting the reinstall each time. A persistent environment that survives a stop is exactly the difference: the box is saved before it goes away, and it comes back with the custom nodes still installed.
Is Google Colab free?
Yes. Google's Colab FAQ says plainly that Colab is free of charge to use. The same FAQ says those resources are not guaranteed and not unlimited and that usage limits sometimes fluctuate, and that a runtime running free of charge without a positive compute unit balance may be terminated at any time without warning if it is used for SSH shells, remote desktops or distributed computing workers.
Source: https://research.google.com/colaboratory/faq.html, read 2026-09-02.
Can I leave Google Colab running overnight?
Not reliably on the free tier. Google's FAQ states that Colab prioritizes interactive compute, that runtimes will time out if you are idle, and that in the version of Colab that is free of charge notebooks can run for at most 12 hours depending on availability and your usage patterns. It also states that virtual machines are deleted when idle for a while and have a maximum lifetime enforced by the Colab service.
Source: https://research.google.com/colaboratory/faq.html, read 2026-09-02.
How do I keep Google Colab running overnight?
Inside Colab the ceiling is Google's rather than a setting you can change: its FAQ caps free-of-charge notebooks at 12 hours, and says Colab Pro+ supports continuous code execution for up to 24 hours if you have sufficient compute units. Renting a GPU is the other way to do it, and it is what this comparison is about. An Aquanode box keeps running until you stop it, unless you switch on idle auto-pause yourself, and stopping it saves the environment so the same setup comes back afterwards.
Source: https://research.google.com/colaboratory/faq.html, read 2026-09-02.
Does Colab Pro give me a dedicated GPU?
No. Google's FAQ states that the types of GPUs and TPUs available in Colab vary over time, that the paid plans have similar dynamics in that resource availability may change over time, and that paid users whose compute unit balance is exhausted revert to the free-of-charge tier policies and restrictions. Its answer for guaranteed resources is a dedicated VM through GCP Marketplace or Colab Enterprise, not Colab Pro.
Source: https://research.google.com/colaboratory/faq.html, read 2026-09-02.
