QuickPod is a smaller GPU marketplace than Vast.ai, and that is most of its appeal to a host: fewer machines competing for the same renters. The install is short, the console gives you a public storefront of your own, and the platform fee is published rather than implied. Here is the whole path from a bare Linux box to a listed machine.
Check these details against the source
What you need before you start
- Ubuntu 22.04. Not 24.04, not 20.04. QuickPod's setup documentation states that 22.04 is the only supported version, with Windows and Ubuntu 23.04 named as planned additions. That 23.04 is itself long out of support suggests the page has not been revisited recently, so confirm with them before assuming anything newer works. This is the one place where our general Ubuntu server setup checklist does not apply as written: it recommends 24.04, which is right for Vast.ai and wrong here.
- A machine that does nothing else. Renters expect the box to stay available for the length of their contract, so a desktop you also use is not a candidate.
- A port range you can forward. The installer asks for one, and renters connect to your machine through it.
- A QuickPod account and its API key. The key is an argument to the installer, so have it open before you start.
Install the host software
The install is one command. Run it as root, not through sudo on each line, because the installer expects a root shell:
- 1Become root:
sudo su - - 2Download and run the installer with your API key in place of
YOUR_API_KEY:wget -O install.bin https://data.quickpod.io/install.bin && chmod 755 ./install.bin && ./install.bin YOUR_API_KEY - 3Give the installer your open port range when it asks. If you get this wrong, or the install errors partway through, the value lives in
/var/lib/quickpod/machine_open_port_rangeand can be edited there rather than reinstalling. - 4Open the GPU Machines page in the console and register the machine, then set your prices for GPU, CPU, storage, and duration.
The full walkthrough, including what to do when the installer fails, is in QuickPod's machine setup page. Their live chat and Discord are the stated support path.
Test your ports from outside your network
What the platform charges
QuickPod publishes a flat platform fee rather than burying it in the quote. Their platform fee page states 20% for standard hosts, and a lifelong 10% rate for early hosts whose host ID number is below 1000. Their payouts and taxes page confirms it is deducted from earnings rather than added to what the renter pays.
That matters for your price floor. A fee taken off the top means the rate a renter pays is not the rate you keep, so the break-even you calculate from electricity has to be grossed up by the fee before it becomes a listing price. If your true cost is $0.10 per GPU hour and the fee is 20%, a listing at $0.125 nets you exactly your cost and no margin. The method for the cost side is in how to set your price floor; the fee is the step after it.
What you control as a host
QuickPod's hosting overview lists the levers that belong to the host rather than the platform:
| Control | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Machine health and listing state | Whether the offer is visible and rentable at all |
| GPU and CPU offer pricing | The rate renters compare you on |
| Minimum GPU grouping | The smallest slice of the machine a renter can take |
| Max duration rules | The longest contract you will accept |
| Privileged access eligibility | Whether renters can run workloads needing elevated access |
| Payout setup | Where the money goes |
| Store branding | Your public storefront and its shareable URL |
The same page is blunt about what stays yours: machine setup, networking, reliability, thermal stability, driver health, and predictable uptime. The marketplace sells your hardware. It does not run it.
Delisting does not end a running contract
The console surfaces worth knowing
- Host store. A public profile with your own branding and a shareable URL, listed in QuickPod's host directory. Renters can browse your offers directly rather than finding you only through general search. Vast.ai has no equivalent.
- Occupancy. Utilization and marketplace activity in one view. This is the number that decides your month, and the argument for why is in utilization beats listing price.
- Contracts. Workload and contract activity per machine, with running hourly and cost totals.
- Earnings and payouts. Earnings history and payout records. QuickPod's earnings page names Stripe, PayPal, and Wise as payout integrations; their payouts and taxes page is the place to confirm what applies to you before you count on a schedule.
Your first week
Expect it to be quiet. A new machine has no reliability history and no contract record, and renters on every marketplace prefer a host with a track record. Use the time the way you would on any platform: watch for failed jobs, confirm your ports stay reachable from outside, and resist taking the machine down for tweaks while someone is on it.
Two things worth doing before the first rental rather than after. Give the hardware a real workout with a burn-in test, so the first crash happens on your watch. And turn off unattended upgrades, covered in why auto updates kill GPU host uptime, so a background kernel swap does not end a contract for you.
When you are ready to think about the price rather than the machine, how QuickPod pricing works covers the per-GPU rate, the public rented feed that tells you what the market actually clears at, and the two listing rules that quietly decide who can rent you.