An Oversimplified Cost Comparison
I’ve written many times, including in my book “Dungeons & Qubits: an Adventurer’s Tale Beyond the Quantum Computing Tutorials,” that IBM Quantum has charged me a whopping $0.00 over the years. But, I just started using AWS Braket for a specific project, and it got me wondering what the cost would be if IBM Quantum charged me for access at the same rate as AWS Braket?
Let’s do some math.
Jobs
I have run over 10,000 jobs through IBM Quantum, but let’s round down to 10,000 to make the math easier. AWS Braket charges $0.30 per job.
10,000 jobs x $0.30 per job = $3,000.00
Shots
The default shot count is 1,024, but let’s round down to 1,000, again, to make the math easier. AWS Braket charges $0.01 per shot.
1,000 shots x $0.01 per shot = $10.00 x 10,000 jobs = $100,000.00
False Assumptions
While I’ve run a few jobs under 1,000 shots, I usually run 20,000 shots. Therefore, the numbers above are quite understated. Plus, some non-zero percentage of those jobs are batches, so those numbers are even more understated. If IBM charged like AWS Braket, most of my jobs would cost me $200.30, with multiples of that for batches.
Conclusion
Using AWS Braket pricing, I have consumed well into six-figures of IBM Quantum value. And the total would go up if we factored in other free IBM resources, particularly IBM Watson and IBM Z. Nonetheless, IBM keeps charging me $0.00 per job and $0.00 per shot. That’s a lot of multiplication by zero, but my accountant assures me the grand total is still $0.00.
If you’re going to use AWS Braket, I recommend using the qBraid platform. qBraid grants access to IBM Quantum, AWS Braket, and other providers with a single API token.
