{"eid":"lightning","name":"Lightning AI","domain":"lightning.ai","resolved_by":"domain","topics":["compute","storage"],"n_records":3,"best_vorder":0,"review":null,"aliases":["Lightning AI","Lightning AI (Lightning Studios persistent storage)","Lightning AI Studios","lightning.ai"],"records":[{"rid":"storage/lightning-ai-studios","card":{"rid":"storage/lightning-ai-studios","eid":"lightning","topic":"storage","slug":"lightning-ai-studios","provider":"Lightning AI Studios","url":"https://lightning.ai","domain":"lightning.ai","category":"iaas","tier":null,"verdict":"qualifies","vorder":0,"grp":"usable","confidence":"reported","binding":"retention-clamped","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"defaulted","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":null,"needs_id":null,"needs_institution":null,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,sftp,ssh,rclone,cli","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":0,"verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"inherited","checked_on":"2026-10-21","stale_on":"2026-11-04","n_evidence":4,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"Free plan: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)'. Studio docs say the default Studio disk is 400 GB; pricing page cap...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":5},"record":{"topic":"storage","slug":"lightning-ai-studios","provider":"Lightning AI Studios","url":"https://lightning.ai","category":"iaas","free_tier":{"stated":"Free plan: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)'. Studio docs say the default Studio disk is 400 GB; pricing page caps the free tier at 200 GB.","unit":"GB","metered_on":"stored-bytes","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","read_on":"2026-10-21","notes":null},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","notes":"not stated"},"retention":{"stated":"Free Studio restarts every 4 hours (compute restarts, disk persists); auto-sleep after 10 min idle; free GPU hours come from 'up to 30 credits'; account data deleted after 6 months without login.","days":0,"source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"No egress meter or per-GB transfer price is published on the pricing page — free/public app serving on Studios is included in the plan.","metered":false},"interface":["rest","sftp","ssh","rclone","cli"],"interface_detail":"rest","tooling":"SSH/SFTP into a Studio (docs: 'Connect any local IDE or SSH'), plus a documented public-port feature; `lightning` CLI and SDK. 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Studios can be mounted as read-only 'datasets' shared across a teamspace, so one account can fan out many consumers.","limits":[{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"deleted after 6 months","source":"https://lightning.ai/pricing"}],"limits_note":"Free Studio restarts every 4 hours (compute restarts, disk persists); auto-sleep after 10 min idle; free GPU hours come from 'up to 30 credits'; account data deleted after 6 months without login.","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"inferred from the category 'iaas'; the source record states no identity cost, so this is a class assumption, not evidence","country":null},"reliability_note":"Disk genuinely persists across sleep/switch ('Studios persist their environments when sleeping and switching machines'); the 4-hour restart interrupts serving but does not lose files.","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"Free plan list: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)'"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio/environment-persistence","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'Everything in the Studio home (~, /teamspace/studios/this_studio) is persisted'"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio/deploy-on-public-ports","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'Studios support any kind of server as long as it exposes a port'"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/security/privacy/data-retention-policy","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"6-month inactivity -> account scheduled for deletion, 30-day notice"}],"verdict":"qualifies","verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"Free plan: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)'. Studio docs say the default Studio disk is 400 GB; pricing page caps the free tier at 200 GB.","extras":{},"binding":"retention-clamped","binding_note":"a clock, not a quota: bytes leave whether or not the client is finished with them"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":4.0,"unit":"hour","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.identity_cost.kind","identity-defaulted"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]},{"rid":"storage/lightning-ai","card":{"rid":"storage/lightning-ai","eid":"lightning","topic":"storage","slug":"lightning-ai","provider":"Lightning AI (Lightning Studios persistent storage)","url":"https://lightning.ai","domain":"lightning.ai","category":"iaas","tier":null,"verdict":"fails-quota","vorder":6,"grp":"rejected","confidence":"reported","binding":"none","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,cli","egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"inherited","checked_on":"2026-10-21","stale_on":"2026-11-04","n_evidence":2,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"No GB figure published. The free tier is framed entirely in GPU hours ('Start on the free tier with 80* free GPU hours'), one Studio free 24/7 with a forced ...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":6},"record":{"topic":"storage","slug":"lightning-ai","provider":"Lightning AI (Lightning Studios persistent storage)","url":"https://lightning.ai","category":"iaas","free_tier":{"stated":"No GB figure published. The free tier is framed entirely in GPU hours ('Start on the free tier with 80* free GPU hours'), one Studio free 24/7 with a forced restart every 4 hours, and 'Studios include persistent storage, allowing file and data downloads to remain intact even if the instance stops, without incurring costs'. So storage is included-and-unmetered in prose, but with no stated ceiling.","unit":"GB","metered_on":"stored-bytes","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","read_on":"2026-10-21","notes":null},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","notes":"not stated"},"retention":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"Not metered — 'without incurring costs' is the only storage statement, and there is no egress line.","metered":true},"interface":["rest","cli"],"interface_detail":"rest","tooling":"`lightning` CLI, `lightning studio` mount/sync, and a Python SDK; Studios are Docker containers with a persistent /teamspace. Real client, real product.","chaining":"One free Studio runs 24/7 per account, so N accounts x 1 persistent volume. The ceiling per volume is undisclosed, which makes planning impossible.","limits":[],"limits_note":"Free Studio restarts every 4 h (a forced restart, not a deletion). 80 free GPU hours. No published per-file cap, no published total, and — importantly — no published statement that the volume survives account downgrade or inactivity.","identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":"email (GitHub OAuth).","country":null},"reliability_note":"The 4-hour forced restart is a hard operational constraint, and the absence of any written storage ceiling means the number can move without notice — the brief's 'client-side limits are worthless as evidence' rule applies in reverse here: there is no server-side limit published either.","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"read live: 'Get up to 80 free GPU hours to start'; 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7 ... 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The free tier is framed entirely in GPU hours ('Start on the free tier with 80* free GPU hours'), one Studio free 24/7 with a forced restart every 4 hours, and 'Studios include persistent storage, allowing file and data downloads to remain intact even if the instance stops, without incurring costs'. So storage is included-and-unmetered in prose, but with no stated ceiling.","retry_when":null,"first_recorded":"2026-10-21"}},"binding":"none","binding_note":"no constraint of a named kind was recorded; the verdict rests on the quota sentence rather than on a named limit"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":4.0,"unit":"hours","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.extras.dead_end.retry_when","process"],["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.stated","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]},{"rid":"compute/lightning-ai","card":{"rid":"compute/lightning-ai","eid":"lightning","topic":"compute","slug":"lightning-ai","provider":"Lightning AI","url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","domain":"lightning.ai","category":"dev environment","tier":null,"verdict":"dead","vorder":7,"grp":"dead","confidence":"documented","binding":"write-gated","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,cli","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":0,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T02:10:12.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":11,"usd_month":0.0,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"one Studio free 24/7, no credit card, no commitment; free Studios require a restart every 4 hours; 80 free GPU hours to start","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":2},"record":{"topic":"compute","per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"notes":null},"interface":["rest","cli"],"interface_detail":"web IDE, SSH into a Studio, and a CLI","tooling":"lightning CLI, SSH, the Studio IDE; persistent filesystem per Studio","chaining":"the free CPU Studio is the only free 24/7 machine with a persistent disk and no card","limits_note":"the 4-hour restart is the constraint: a process that must survive it needs a supervisor that resumes after the restart","reliability_note":"access revoked for every user on 2026-10-16 at 01:00 UTC after credential compromise; the incident page states the platform stays inaccessible to all users and status.lightning.ai still reported the service down on 2026-10-22","confidence":"documented","verified_at":"2026-10-24T02:10:12.000Z","price_per_tb_month":null,"slug":"lightning-ai","provider":"Lightning AI","url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","category":"dev environment","free_tier":{"stated":"one Studio free 24/7, no credit card, no commitment; free Studios require a restart every 4 hours; 80 free GPU hours to start","unit":"hours","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"the 80 GPU hours are a starting grant against a table from T4 to H200"},"retention":{"stated":"a Studio keeps its files between sessions; the free tier forces a restart every 4 hours","days":0},"egress":{"terms":"not priced on the page read","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing"},"limits":[{"kind":"write-gated","value":"all user access revoked on 2026-10-16 01:00 UTC; no Studio can be created while the incident is open","source":"https://lightning.ai/security-incident"}],"identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":"'No credit card' for the free Studio, quoted","country":null},"evidence":[{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'Run 1 Studio free 24/7. No credit card. No commitments.'"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'Free Studios run 24/7 but require restart every 4 hours. No restrictions in Pro or higher.'"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"80 free GPU hours; T4 USD 0.55/h, L4 USD 0.79, L40S USD 3.54, A100 40GB USD 2.19, H100 USD 5.45, H200 USD 4.50"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/security-incident","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'We revoked all user access to the Lightning Platform on October 16 at 1:00 AM UTC' and 'the Platform will remain inaccessible to all users', quoted; affected services named as Studio, Deployments, Pipelines and Drive"},{"url":"https://status.lightning.ai","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"banner reads 'Service is down to address a security incident', last update 2026-10-19 12:49 UTC, incident still open when read"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"the pricing page still advertises 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7', so the marketing page contradicts the incident page and the incident page is the newer and more specific claim"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-23","proved":"'You get 5 free Lightning credits upon registration. Add a card for 25 more. If you don't use them, they expire in 12 months. Credits can be used on compute, storage and tokens.', quoted on 2026-10-23; this conflicts with the recorded revocation of user access on 2026-10-16 and does not overturn it"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/security-incident","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'This is an active investigation and during this time the Platform will remain inaccessible to all users'"},{"url":"https://status.lightning.ai","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"banner reads 'Service is down to address a security incident'; the newest update is dated 2026-10-19 12:49 UTC"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"the marketing page still advertises 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7. No credit card. No commitments.' while the platform is down"},{"url":"https://lightning.ai/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"the quoted rate table, all eight rows: T4 USD 0.55 with 75 free hours to start, L4 USD 0.79 with 31, L40S USD 3.54 with 5, RTXP 6000 USD 4.64 with 3, A100 40 GB USD 2.19 with 10, A100 80 GB USD 1.85 with none, H100 USD 5.45 with none and H200 USD 4.50 with none; footnotes read 'Billed by the second' and 'Free Studios run 24/7 but require restart every 4 hours'"}],"verdict":"dead","notes":"The offer is real on the pricing page and the platform is not: the security-incident page still states the Platform remains inaccessible, and the status banner still reads 'Service is down'. A lane on 2026-10-24 read only the pricing page and reversed this verdict to qualifies; that reading is refuted by the two operational pages read the same day. Keep dead. Reopen when status.lightning.ai clears the banner and the incident page announces restoration.","extras":{"shape":{"vcpu":null,"ram_gib":null,"disk_gib":null,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":null},"billing_model":"wall-clock","granularity":{"min_billed_s":60,"rounding_s":60},"session_cap":{"wall_clock_min":240,"idle_reap_s":null,"restart_required":true,"note":"a free Studio must restart every 4 hours; Pro removes the restriction"},"keep_rate":{"value":0.0,"basis":"a stopped Studio bills storage only","source":"https://lightning.ai/pricing"},"persistent_storage":{"included_gib":null,"price_gib_month":"not stated on the pricing page","durability":"Studio filesystem persists","survives_stop":true,"survives_destroy":null,"max_retention":"while the Studio exists"},"network_out":{"allow_outbound":true,"allow_inbound_listen":null,"ports":null,"static_ip":null,"ipv6":null,"per_session_bytes":null},"free_tier_kind":"allowance","m10h_usd":0.0,"m24h_usd":0.0,"price_arithmetic":"the CPU Studio is free at any duty cycle; the 4-hour restart is the cost","census_rows":["lightning-ai"],"burst_x":1.0,"wave2":{"verdict_change":"qualifies-with-caveat -> dead on 2026-10-22"}},"binding":"write-gated","binding_note":"the platform is closed to all users while an incident is open: no Studio can be created, so the free allowance cannot be reached at all"},"claims":[{"path":"$.extras.m10h_usd","kind":"price","num":0.0,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":0.0,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.extras.m24h_usd","kind":"price","num":0.0,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":0.0,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":4.0,"unit":"hours","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:write-gated","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"]],"history":[{"hid":"history/2026-10-22T142955Z/compute-lightning-studio-dead.md","when":"2026-10-22T14:29:55Z","status":"corrected","title":"Lightning AI's free Studio is dead, and the pricing page still sells it"}],"drift":[]}]}