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Credits

Access to both classical and quantum computing resources is managed through the qBraid credits system, which operates on a pay-as-you-go basis. Each qBraid credit is worth $0.01 USD, so a quantum job costing $3.80 would subtract 380 credits from your qBraid balance. Credits can be purchased from your account page, or redeemed using a promo code. You can check your current credit balance on your account page, under the “Profile” drop-down in the top right of qBraid Lab, or using the qBraid-CLI. Prices for both classical and quantum computing resources are subject to change.

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Quantum Computers

There are three pricing components for on-demand use of a quantum computer, or quantum processing unit (QPU), on qBraid: a per-minute fee, per-task fee, and per-shot fee. A shot is a single execution of a quantum algorithm on a QPU. For example, a shot is a single pass through each stage of a complete quantum circuit on a gate-based QPU from IonQ, Rigetti, IQM, or AQT, or the time evolution of a Hamiltonian on a QPU from QuEra. A task is a sequence of repeated shots based on the same circuit design or Hamiltonian. You define how many shots you want included in a task when you submit it.

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Pricing Structure

  • Per-minute pricing: Applies to specific QPUs (e.g., Rigetti Cepheus-1-108Q, Pasqal Fresnel) where execution time is billed
  • Per-task pricing: Consistent across most QPUs (typically 30 credits)
  • Per-shot pricing: Varies by QPU type (<1 to 8 credits for current offerings)
For gate-based QPUs, neither per-shot nor per-minute prices are affected by the number or type of gates used.
Per-minute prices are a rate, not a minimum charge. Execution time is billed pro rata for the exact time your program runs — down to the microsecond — so you are never rounded up to a whole minute, and there is no minimum billable duration.
You are billed for the time your program actually executes, whatever that is. On Rigetti’s Cepheus-1-108Q, the 12,000 credits/minute rate works out to:In practice, jobs on Cepheus-1-108Q execute in tens to hundreds of milliseconds, costing roughly $0.05 to $0.50. Cost scales with execution time — not with shot count or the number of qubits used.

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Run these QPUs for free with Open Quantum

IBEX Q1, Garnet, Emerald, Forte 1, Forte Enterprise 1, and Cepheus-1-108Q all cost 0 qBraid credits through Open Quantum, and new accounts can claim $50 in free Spark credits. See the Open Quantum integration guide to create an account, claim the credits, and connect.

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Quantum Circuit Simulators

Verify your circuits using a simulator before you run it on a QPU, so you can fine-tune your circuit without incurring charges for QPU usage. Although the results from running the circuit on a simulator may not be identical to the results from running the circuit on a QPU, you can identify coding errors or configuration issues using a simulator. qBraid offers ten on-demand quantum circuit simulators for testing quantum algorithms:
  • qBraid QIR Simulator: employs sparse state vector simulation based on arXiv:2105.01533.
  • AWS State Vector 1 (SV1): serves as a general purpose quantum circuit simulator.
  • AWS Density Matrix 1 (DM1): enables simulating the effect of noise on your circuits.
  • Rigetti QVM Simulator: Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM) open-source simulator.
  • IonQ Simulator: supports “ideal” simulations as well as noise models for harmony (legacy), aria-1, aria-2, forte-1, and forte-enterprise-1.
  • Quantinuum H2-1 Syntax Checker: Validates quantum programs against the H2-1 compiler.
  • Quantinuum H2-1 Emulator: Emulation tool containing a realistic noise model of the actual System Model H2 hardware.
  • Pasqal Emulator: Neutral atom tensor network emulator. Runs on a cluster of DGX nodes with NVIDIA A100 GPUs.
  • Equal1 Bell-1 Simulator: State-vector simulator supporting Equal1 Bell-1 QPU noise models; GPU acceleration available
  • Quobly Alloy Forge Emulator: Emulator of the Quobly Alloy Pioneer 10 qubit QPU.
All simulators automatically scale resources to ensure high-performance. Billing is based on a fixed per-task cost plus the duration of each simulation, charged per minute in one-millisecond increments, with a minimum billing duration of three seconds per simulation.
The QPU and simulator lists above are subject to change and may be incomplete or include options that are no longer available. For the most complete and up-to-date list of quantum devices, visit your account page.

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CPUs and GPUs

qBraid Lab offers two ways to access compute: subscription instances billed against your monthly CPU hours, and on-demand instances billed per minute in credits.

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Subscription Instances

Your subscription plan includes a monthly allocation of CPU hours. The following CPU instances draw from that quota: If you exceed your monthly CPU hours, you can auto-switch to credits — usage then bills at the per-minute credit rates shown above. These rates are consistent with on-demand pricing, so there is no difference in cost between overdraft and on-demand for the same compute. See usage limits for more details on compute hour tracking.

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On-Demand Instances

On-demand instances are billed per minute in credits, with no subscription commitment required. This includes all GPU instances and additional high-spec CPU configurations. See On-Demand Instances for the full lifecycle guide. Subscription discounts on on-demand pricing: Standard and Pro subscribers receive an automatic discount on all on-demand instances (GPUs and on-demand CPUs). The discount is applied at billing time — the effective rate is shown on your dashboard alongside the list price. The Slug column is the profile identifier used with the qBraid CLI. For example:

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GPU Instances

See GPUs for more details on launching and using GPU instances.

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CPU Instances

On-demand CPU instances offer higher-spec configurations beyond what subscription instances provide.
Additional configurations may be available. Visit your account page to see the full list of options.