Does a Vast.ai machine’s GPU count equal the number of cards already rented?
Registered cards, offers that can still be rented, and cards already rented are three different facts. A day-income figure does not prove every card is rented.
Read occupancy from contracts, card count from the machine record
GPU count is only how many cards are registered. Open the machine’s contracts for how many are rented, and use a machine_id CLI search to see if the offer is still listed.
| What you see | What it actually counts | Shown on the monitor |
|---|---|---|
| GPU count | Cards registered on the machine | Yes, from that machine record |
| Min GPU | Smallest group a client may rent, 1 or a power of 2 | No |
| Cards already rented | GPUs held by open contracts | No |
| One row in public search | One listing the catalog chose to show, not necessarily yours | Public search is not a substitute for the machines page |
The GPU count on the monitor is how many cards this machine registered, not how many are rented right now. How many a client may take at once is the offer’s min GPU. How many are already taken is written on each contract. When those three disagree, do not reverse the day’s income into an occupancy rate.
What else the offer decides
The hosting overview says a multi-GPU machine that allows slicing can have several clients, each with an independent contract. On-demand price has priority and, when filled, stops interruptible instances. The interruptible price is a minimum bid: the highest bid runs and the others pause.
The reserved discount is set by the host and can be 0 to opt out. Volume offers share the disk pool with GPU offers. Only space that is actually rented is removed from disk still offered with GPUs. None of that is the GPU count on the monitor.
Which number to check
- Identify the machine: match GPU name and registered count on the Vast.ai monitor with the Host machines page.
- See the allowed slice: min GPU. Eight cards with a minimum of 2 means groups of 2, 4, or 8, not any count.
- See whether it is listed: do not rely on website search. Run
vastai search offers 'machine_id=YOUR_ID verified=any'.
What to do next
- To learn how many cards are rented: open that machine’s contracts and count GPUs on each one, then read contracts and offers.
- To learn today’s money: read the four-line total. Income only means the report has amounts.
- If website search is empty: run the CLI above. If that is also empty, then check unlist, the offer end date, or an error that leaves the machine unverified.
Illustrative case
Illustrative, not a measured occupancy: 4 cards registered, min GPU 1. One contract holds 2 cards and the rest of the offer is unrented. The monitor still shows 4. A four-line total of 1.65 USD that day still does not mean all 4 cards are rented.
Limits
The monitor does not call public search, and it does not show rented GPUs, min GPU, reserved discount, or free disk. GPU totals and data-center counts on the Vast homepage are marketplace copy, not this machine’s occupancy. Verification is the error state on the machines page and Vast’s verification notes, not something you infer from the GPU count.
Common questions
With 8 cards and min GPU set to 2, can a client rent a single card?
Not according to the hosting overview. With min GPU at 2, clients rent 2, 4, or 8. Set it to 1 if 1, 2, 4, or 8 should all be allowed. The monitor still shows 8 registered cards. It does not rewrite that count into the allowed group sizes.
If my machine is missing from website search, is it unlisted?
Not necessarily. Vast says console search shows only a small subset of a catalog of more than 10,000 listings, so a specific machine usually will not appear. Use the CLI: `vastai search offers 'machine_id=YOUR_ID verified=any'`. A result means that listing is searchable.
If today’s income is above zero, are all cards rented?
No. Income is the four-line total. It can come from only some GPUs, from storage, or from bandwidth. Unknown income is not the same as idle. How many cards are rented is on the machine’s contracts, not in the total.