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 environment survives the box. Pause a deployment, come back tomorrow, resume with packages, model weights and config intact — instead of rebuilding from a fresh image every session.
- A snapshot taken on one provider restores onto another. Supply moved, price moved, or a region ran dry — the environment follows, rather than being stranded in the account that created it.
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 2026-08-05.
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 — you pause the box and resume it with the custom nodes still installed.
