DeepSeek-R1 hardware requirements
Needs at least 4 GPUs at FP8 (Instinct MI355X OAM). For 1,000 tokens/s at 32k context you need 16 x H100 SXM5 80GB at $29.28/hr or 32 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $16.00/hr.
Top options for DeepSeek-R1
The strongest part each vendor offers for DeepSeek-R1 at FP8 with 32,768 tokens per user, rentable parts first. Each card is one replica, the fewest accelerators that hold the model, and the line it draws on the graph below. Select a card to plot it.
Tokens per second as users grow
Each line is one replica, the fewest accelerators that hold the model, serving more users at once. It climbs while memory bandwidth is the limit, flattens once compute is, and stops where memory runs out at 32,768 tokens per user. Hover a line to bring it forward.
4 x GB300 NVL72 GPU 288GB: peaks at 2.0k tokens per second when memory fills at 184 users.4 x Instinct MI355X OAM: peaks at 2.0k tokens per second when memory fills at 184 users.8 x Ascend 950DT: peaks at 1.2k tokens per second when memory fills at 182 users.8 x Gaudi 3 128GB: peaks at 1.3k tokens per second when memory fills at 128 users.4 x TPU v7 192GB: peaks at 877 tokens per second when memory fills at 23 users.
Memory fills at: 4 x GB300 NVL72 GPU 288GB 184 users, 4 x Instinct MI355X OAM 184 users, 8 x Ascend 950DT 182 users, 8 x Gaudi 3 128GB 128 users, 4 x TPU v7 192GB 23 users. Roofline estimates at FP8.
Bare minimum
- Tokens/s
- 571
- Per hour
- $23.96
- Per million tokens
- $11.65
- Memory used
- 62%
- Tokens/s
- 241
- Per hour
- $4.00
- Per million tokens
- $4.61
- Memory used
- 93%
- Tokens/s
- 730
- Per hour
- $8.00
- Per million tokens
- $3.04
- Memory used
- 52%
Configurations
Every datacenter GPU in the catalog, sized for these settings. Change precision, context and concurrency and the whole page follows. Each point is one replica: the smallest tensor-parallel group of that GPU that holds the model.
4 x Instinct MI355X OAM: 1.0k tokens/s per replica at $23.96/hr.4 x GB300 NVL72 GPU 288GB: 1.0k tokens/s per replica at $49.68/hr.8 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 2.0k tokens/s per replica at $84.00/hr.4 x Instinct MI350X OAM: 1.0k tokens/s per replica at $24.64/hr.4 x B300 SXM 262GB: 1.0k tokens/s per replica at $19.96/hr.8 x B200 SXM 180GB: 1.9k tokens/s per replica at $32.72/hr.4 x Instinct MI325X OAM: 710 tokens/s per replica at $15.20/hr.8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB: 1.2k tokens/s per replica at $19.12/hr.8 x H200 SXM 141GB: 1.1k tokens/s per replica at $19.84/hr.16 x H100 SXM5 80GB: 1.4k tokens/s per replica at $29.28/hr.8 x H200 NVL 141GB: 999 tokens/s per replica at $28.91/hr.16 x H100 NVL 94GB: 1.5k tokens/s per replica at $51.04/hr.16 x H100 PCIe 80GB: 901 tokens/s per replica at $40.00/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition: 757 tokens/s per replica at $28.80/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition: 692 tokens/s per replica at $11.04/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition: 730 tokens/s per replica at $8.00/hr.16 x A100 PCIe 80GB: 509 tokens/s per replica at $21.60/hr.16 x A100 SXM4 80GB: 522 tokens/s per replica at $21.60/hr.
Priced configurations only; 33 more fit without a live price and appear in the table. Marker size grows with the tensor-parallel width. Roofline estimates.
| Rent | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1.7k tok/s | Specs → | |
| 4 | 3.0k tok/s | Specs → | |
TPU 8t announced | 4 | ~795 tok/s | Specs → |
TPU 8i announced | 4 | ~891 tok/s | Specs → |
| 4 | 1.0k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 4 | 1.0k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 2.0k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 4 | 1.0k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 1.8k tok/s | Specs → | |
Instinct MI430X OAM announced | 2 | ~727 tok/s | Specs → |
| 4 | 1.0k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 1.9k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 4 | 1.5k tok/s | Specs → | |
| 8 | 1.8k tok/s | Specs → | |
| 4 | ~1.4k tok/s | Specs → | |
| 4 | 710 tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 1.2k tok/s | Rent → | |
| 16 | ~696 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 4 | 861 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 8 | 1.1k tok/s | Rent → | |
H100 SXM5 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | 1.4k tok/s | Rent → |
| 8 | ~607 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 8 | ~999 tok/s | Rent → | |
H100 NVL 94GB 2 nodes | 16 | ~1.5k tok/s | Rent → |
| 8 | ~587 tok/s | Specs → | |
H100 PCIe 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | 901 tok/s | Rent → |
H800 PCIe 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | 901 tok/s | Specs → |
| 8 | 744 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 16 | 757 tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 392 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 16 | ~693 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 16 | 692 tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | 837 tok/s | Specs → | |
TPU v5p 95GB 2 nodes | 16 | 739 tok/s | Specs → |
| 16 | 730 tok/s | Rent → | |
| 8 | ~141 tok/s | Specs → | |
Gaudi 2 96GB 2 nodes | 16 | 904 tok/s | Specs → |
| 8 | 337 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 16 | ~518 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 8 | ~407 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 8 | ~393 tok/s | Specs → | |
A800 PCIe 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | ~509 tok/s | Specs → |
A800 SXM4 2 nodes | 16 | ~522 tok/s | Specs → |
A100 PCIe 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | ~509 tok/s | Rent → |
A100 SXM4 80GB 2 nodes | 16 | ~522 tok/s | Rent → |
RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 72GB 2 nodes | 16 | ~386 tok/s | Specs → |
Instinct MI210 PCIe 2 nodes | 16 | ~347 tok/s | Specs → |
| 8 | 368 tok/s | Specs → | |
H20 96GB 2 nodes | 16 | 649 tok/s | Specs → |
| 16 | ~149 tok/s | Specs → | |
| 16 | ~234 tok/s | Specs → |
By vendor
At FP8 the NVIDIA pick is 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at about 730 tokens/s for $8.00/hr; the AMD pick is 8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB at about 1.2k tokens/s for $19.12/hr. Per rental dollar NVIDIA delivers 1.42x the tokens of AMD here.
NVIDIA: 91.3 tokens/s per dollar, 152 tokens/s per kW (16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition).AMD: 64.2 tokens/s per dollar, 204 tokens/s per kW (8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB).Huawei: no live price, no power figure (8 x Ascend 950DT).Intel: no live price, 116 tokens/s per kW (8 x Gaudi 3 128GB).Google: no live price, no power figure (8 x TPU v7 192GB).Other: no live price, 118 tokens/s per kW (8 x Cloud AI 100 Ultra).
Fleet what-if
Compare whole fleets at these settings: a thousand of one part against a hundred of another. Each fleet splits into replicas of its tensor-parallel width; GPUs left over sit idle.
| Fleet | Tokens/s |
|---|---|
1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB | 132k tok/s |
104 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB | 26k tok/s |
1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB: 132k tokens/s, $2,480/hr, 700 kW.104 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 26k tokens/s, $1,092/hr, no power figure.
H200 SXM 141GB: 132k tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 245k tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.
Size DeepSeek-R1 for a tokens per second target
The calculator starts from your traffic instead of a fleet: set a target rate and read the replica count for every GPU.
Frequently asked questions
How much GPU memory does DeepSeek-R1 need?
The weights take 684 GB at the native FP8 precision (1,369 GB at BF16, 684 GB at FP8, 385 GB at INT4). Each concurrent stream adds 69 KB of KV cache per token: 0.3 GB at 4,096 tokens and 2.3 GB at 32,768 tokens.
What is the bare minimum to run DeepSeek-R1?
4 x Instinct MI355X OAM at FP8 with 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. The cheapest live rental for that footprint is 8 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $4.00 per hour.
How many H100s do you need to run DeepSeek-R1?
16 H100s at FP8 for 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. For 32,768 tokens and 32 concurrent streams the tensor-parallel group is 16 H100s, and 1,000 tokens per second takes 16 H100s across 1 replicas.
How much does DeepSeek-R1 cost per million tokens on an H100?
About $5.68 per million output tokens at FP8, 32,768 tokens of context and 32 streams, using the cheapest live on-demand price of $1.83 per GPU-hour. The cheapest part per token is 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $3.04.
What precision does DeepSeek-R1 ship in?
The published checkpoint is FP8. FP8 halves the BF16 footprint with the accuracy the lab validated; INT4 is a further community quantisation.
All figures are roofline estimates from the model's config.json and each GPU's published memory, bandwidth and tensor-core peak, with fixed efficiency factors. Prices are the cheapest live on-demand listing per GPU when the site has one. They are a planning floor; a tuned serving stack can do better. Active parameters per the DeepSeek technical report. The checkpoint total includes a multi-token-prediction layer that is idle at inference.





