Lightning AI
lightning.ai · 3 records in Compute, Storage · JSON
Records 3
- ★ qualifiesLightning AI Studios
Storagefree tieridentity card?card?limit retention-clampedevidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- fails: quotaLightning AI (Lightning Studios persistent storage)
Storagefree tieridentity emailno cardevidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- deadLightning AI
Computeidentity any-phoneno cardlimit write-gatedevidence documentedchecked 2026-10-31
Lightning AI Studios
Storage- Free allowance
- Free plan: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)'.
- Verdict
- ★ qualifiesusable as stated; the read path was probed
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- card?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
- Binding limit
- retention-clampeddeleted after 6 months
- Evidence
- reported4 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | 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 |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
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 | card (placeholder) inferred from the category 'iaas'; the source record states no identity cost, so this is a class assumption, not evidence |
| Egress | 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. |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | 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. |
| Interface | rest, sftp, ssh, rclone, cli rest |
| Tooling | SSH/SFTP into a Studio (docs: 'Connect any local IDE or SSH'), plus a documented public-port feature; lightning CLI and SDK. No rclone backend. |
| Composes with | 1 Studio per free account with 200 GB persistent; N free accounts. Studios can be mounted as read-only 'datasets' shared across a teamspace, so one account can fan out many consumers. |
| Reliability | 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. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 4
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/pricing | Free plan list: '1 free active Studio (4 hour restarts)', 'Persistent storage (200 GB limit)' |
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio/environment-persi | 'Everything in the Studio home (~, /teamspace/studios/this_studio) is persisted' |
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio/deploy-on-public- | 'Studios support any kind of server as long as it exposes a port' |
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/security/privacy/data-retention-p | 6-month inactivity -> account scheduled for deletion, 30-day notice |
Unknown values 3
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- Free allowance
- No GB figure published.
- Verdict
- fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- noneno named constraint binds
- Evidence
- reported2 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | 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 |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Identity | email email (GitHub OAuth). |
| Egress | Not metered — 'without incurring costs' is the only storage statement, and there is no egress line. |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | not stated |
| Interface | rest, cli rest |
| Tooling | lightning CLI, lightning studio mount/sync, and a Python SDK; Studios are Docker containers with a persistent /teamspace. Real client, real product. |
| Composes with | 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. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 2
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/pricing | read live: 'Get up to 80 free GPU hours to start'; 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7 ... Free Studios run 24/7 but require restart every 4 hours' |
| 2026-10-21 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | read live (AI Studio docs): 'Studios include persistent storage, allowing file and data downloads to remain intact even if the instance stops, without incurring costs' |
More fields 1
| dead end | {"failure_class": "egress","why": "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.","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"} |
|---|
Unknown values 4
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
Lightning AI
Compute- Free allowance
- One CPU Studio free 24/7 with a restart every 4 hours, no credit card; up to 30 free credits to start: 5 at registration and 25 more after a card is added, expiring after 12 months unused; the pricing table states the free GPU hours as T4 75, L4 31, L40S 5, RTXP 6000 3 and A100 40 GB 10...
- Verdict
- deadthe offer or the service no longer exists
- Cost
- no price stated
- Identity
- any-phoneno card, phone required
- Binding limit
- write-gatedall user access revoked on 2026-10-16 01:00 UTC; since 2026-10-28 only read-only Drive access through the CLI is back, and no Studio can be started or account opened while the incident is open
- Evidence
- documented44 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- checked 2026-10-31checked 2026-10-31 (live)
| Free tier | one CPU Studio free 24/7 with a restart every 4 hours, no credit card; up to 30 free credits to start: 5 at registration and 25 more after a card is added, expiring after 12 months unused; the pricing table states the free GPU hours as T4 75, L4 31, L40S 5, RTXP 6000 3 and A100 40 GB 10, headlined 'up to 80 free GPU hours'; 10 GB of storage free within a 200 GB persistent storage limit unit hours; metered on wall-clock; the GPU hours are what the credits buy: the table's hours assume the full 30 credits, and without a card the grant is 5 credits; A100 80 GB, H100 and H200 carry no free hours; on the free tier A100, H100 and H200 sessions stop at 4 hours; 1 credit is USD 1 |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
the 4-hour restart is the constraint: a process that must survive it needs a supervisor that resumes after the restart |
| Binding | write-gated the platform is closed while the incident is open: Studio, Jobs and Deployments are not restored and the sign-up page redirects to the incident page, so the free allowance cannot be reached; only read-only Drive access through the CLI is back |
| Identity | any-phone a non-virtual phone number is verified at account creation: 'Lightning AI requires non-virtual phone numbers.' (https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq) and 'Verify your phone number to receive up to 80 free GPU hours to start. This step is required for your security.' (https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio); sign-up is by work or university email, Gmail or GitHub, followed by an identity review in which personal emails take two to three business days (https://lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/create-account); no card at sign-up, and adding one unlocks 25 more credits; free credits go to one account only; the docs state the service 'is not available in every country' and publish no list; whether the free CPU Studio starts before the phone check is unverified: behind a sign-up |
| Egress | no egress charge: the billing page names only two activities that consume credits, running machines and storage above 10 GB |
| Retention | a Studio keeps its files between sessions; the free tier forces a restart every 4 hours |
| Interface | rest, cli, ssh web IDE, SSH into a Studio, and a CLI |
| Tooling | lightning CLI, SSH, the Studio IDE; persistent filesystem per Studio |
| Composes with | the free CPU Studio is the only free 24/7 machine with a persistent disk and no card |
| Reliability | access revoked for every user on 2026-10-16 at 01:00 UTC after credential compromise; read-only Drive access through the CLI is back since 2026-10-28, while Studio, Jobs and Deployments stay closed; the status incident was still unresolved on 2026-10-30, its newest update dated 2026-10-29 15:55 UTC, and the sign-up page redirected to the incident page |
| Notes | The offer is real on the pricing page and the platform is not. On 2026-10-30 the security-incident page states that read-only Drive access through the CLI is back since 2026-10-28 and that Studio, Jobs and Deployments will follow at a time not yet given; the status page still lists the incident as unresolved, and https://lightning.ai/sign-up redirects to the incident page, so no account can be opened and no Studio started. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 44
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-22 | lightning.ai/pricing | 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7. No credit card. No commitments.' |
| 2026-10-22 | lightning.ai/pricing | 'Free Studios run 24/7 but require restart every 4 hours. No restrictions in Pro or higher.' |
| 2026-10-22 | lightning.ai/pricing | 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 |
| 2026-10-22 | lightning.ai/security-incident | '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 |
| 2026-10-22 | status.lightning.ai | banner reads 'Service is down to address a security incident', last update 2026-10-19 12:49 UTC, incident still open when read |
| 2026-10-22 | lightning.ai/pricing | 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 |
| 2026-10-23 | lightning.ai/pricing | '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 |
| 2026-10-24 | lightning.ai/security-incident | quoted: 'This is an active investigation and during this time the Platform will remain inaccessible to all users' |
| 2026-10-24 | status.lightning.ai | banner reads 'Service is down to address a security incident'; the newest update is dated 2026-10-19 12:49 UTC |
| 2026-10-24 | lightning.ai/pricing | the marketing page still advertises 'Run 1 Studio free 24/7. No credit card. No commitments.' while the platform is down |
| 2026-10-24 | lightning.ai/pricing | 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' |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq | account creation verifies a phone number, and a virtual number is refused |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | phone verification is required for the free GPU hours and stated as required for security |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/pricing | registration grants 5 credits, a card adds 25, and unused credits expire after 12 months |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/pricing | the pricing page still offers one free 24/7 Studio with no card |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/pricing | the per-class free hours in the table are bought with up to 30 credits |
| 2026-10-30 | status.lightning.ai | the status page's newest update, 2026-10-29 15:55 UTC, restores only read-only Drive access |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/security-incident | Studio, Jobs and Deployments were still closed on 2026-10-30 with no restoration date |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/security-incident | the only restored access is the Drive, through the CLI |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/sign-up | https://lightning.ai/sign-up answered with a redirect to the security-incident page on 2026-10-30 |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | only machines and storage above 10 GB consume credits; transfer is not billed |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | the billing page is the source of the egress terms |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/getting-started | a Studio is reachable over SSH |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | the free Studio is a 4-CPU instance |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | an idle Studio sleeps after 10 minutes |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/pricing | paid machines are billed per second |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | 10 GB of storage is free |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | storage above 10 GB costs USD 0.10 per GB per month |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/pricing | the pricing FAQ asks for a phone number at registration, answered 'To prevent abuse of the platform.' |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/create-account | an identity review follows sign-up; personal emails take two to three business days |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq | free credits are granted to one account per person |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | the service is restricted by country, with no list on the page |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | one credit is worth USD 1 |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | the billing page also states one free 4-CPU Studio |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/security-incident | read-only Drive access returned on 2026-10-28 |
| 2026-10-30 | status.lightning.ai/incidents/h20stxqvwg8r | the incident report h20stxqvwg8r is still open, newest update 2026-10-29 15:55 UTC |
| 2026-10-30 | status.lightning.ai | the status history lists the incident as unresolved on 2026-10-29 |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/build/ai-studio | a Studio keeps its files across a stop |
| 2026-10-30 | lightning.ai/security-incident | Studio access is still closed on 2026-10-30, so the verdict dead holds |
| 2026-10-31 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | the free storage allowance is stated as 10 GB, with no decimal or binary base |
| 2026-10-31 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | the free 10 GB is stated in GB with no base and covers the Drive and container images together |
| 2026-10-31 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | the free tier keeps 10 GB free within a 200 GB total storage limit |
| 2026-10-31 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | storage above the free 10 GB costs USD 0.10 per GB per month, billed daily |
| 2026-10-31 | lightning.ai/docs/platform/overview/faq/billing | only machines and storage above 10 GB consume credits; transfer is not billed |
More fields 12
| shape | {"vcpu": 4,"ram_gib": null,"disk_gib": null,"gpu_class": null,"gpu_count": null} |
|---|---|
| billing model | wall-clock |
| granularity | {"min_billed_s": 60,"rounding_s": 1} |
| session cap | {"wall_clock_min": 240,"idle_reap_s": 600,"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": 10,"price_gib_month": "USD 0.10 per GB per month above the first 10 GB, billed daily; the free tier caps total storage at 200 GB","durability": "Studio filesystem persists","survives_stop": true,"survives_destroy": null,"max_retention": "while the Studio exists","notes": "the billing and pricing pages state 10 GB free and do not say whether GB is decimal or binary; kept as stated; the free 10 GB counts the Drive and the container images together"} |
| 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 |
| burst x | 1.0 |
Unknown values 1
- per object cap stated: the field does not apply to this kind of offer
Corrections
- 2026-10-22 Lightning AI's free Studio is dead, and the pricing page still sells it