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Pricing plans for Azure Quantum providers

In Azure Quantum, hardware and software providers define and control the pricing of their offerings. The information in this article is subject to change by providers and some delays in reflecting latest pricing information may exist. Be sure to verify the latest pricing information from the Azure Quantum workspace you're using.

IonQ

IonQ charges based on a token pricing model which billing unit is the Azure Quantum Token (AQT). This model is specific to Azure Quantum. The number of Azure Quantum Tokens is calculated by the following formula:

$$ AQT = m + 0.000220 · (N_{1q} · C) + 0.000975 ·(N_{2q}· C) $$

where:

  • $AQT$ is the number of Azure Quantum Tokens consumed by the program
  • $m$ is the minimum price per program execution, which is USD97.50 if error mitigation is on and USD12.4166 if error mitigation is off
  • The units $N_{1q} · C$ and $N_{2q} · C$ are called gate-shots, where $N_{1q}$ and $N_{2q}$ are the number of one- and two-qubit gates submitted, respectively, and $C$ is the number of execution shots

Multi-controlled two-qubit gates are billed as $6 * (N - 2)$ two-qubit gates, where $N$ is the number of qubits involved in the gate. For example, a NOT gate with three controls would be billed as $(6 * (4 - 2))$ or 12 two-qubit gates. One-qubit gates are billed as 0.225 of a two-qubit gate (rounded down).

IonQ offers two billing plans: Pay As You Go, and Aria plan.

The Pay-as-you-go plan consists of a la carte access to the IonQ Aria 1 and Aria 2 25-qubit quantum computers, and the IonQ simulator. The use of the quantum computers is charged based on the number of AQTs + Azure infrastructure costs.

Includes access to Pricing
IonQ simulator Free of charge
IonQ Aria 1
  • USD0.000220 / 1-qubit-gate shot
  • USD0.000975 / 2-qubit-gate shot
  • Minimum price per program execution:
    • USD97.50 - default setting, error mitigation is on
    • USD12.4166 if error mitigation is off
IonQ Aria 2
  • USD0.000220 / 1-qubit-gate shot
  • USD0.000975 / 2-qubit-gate shot
  • Minimum price per program execution:
    • USD97.50 - default setting, error mitigation is on
    • USD12.4166 if error mitigation is off
IonQ Forte (Private preview)
  • USD0.000220 / 1-qubit-gate shot
  • USD0.000975 / 2-qubit-gate shot
  • Minimum price per program execution:
    • USD97.50 - default setting, error mitigation is on
    • USD12.4166 if error mitigation is off

For more information about Azure infrastructure costs, see Azure Blob Storage pricing.

Note

If you're an existing research grant or a Pay-as-you-go customer, you may see another billing unit in addition to AQT, called Quantum Gate-Shots (QGS). The QGS units are equivalent to AQT units. The number of QGS is calculated by the following formula:

$$ QGS = N · C $$ where:

  • $QGS$ is the number of quantum gate-shots
  • $N$ is the number of one- or two-qubit gates submitted
  • $C$ is the number of execution shots

PASQAL

PASQAL charges for job execution time on its quantum processor - the 100-qubit Fresnel - and its state of the art tensor networks emulator - EMU-TN.

PASQAL offers one billing plan: Pay As You Go.

In the Pay-as-you-go plan the usage is charged based on the job execution time only.

Pricing Includes access to
  • USD 300/QPU hour + Azure infrastructure costs
  • USD 15/EMU-TN hour + Azure infrastructure costs
  • PASQAL Fresnel QPU
  • PASQAL EMU-TN

For more information about Azure infrastructure costs, see Azure Blob Storage pricing.

Quantinuum

Quantinuum uses a system that charges each job depending on the number of operations in the job, and the number of shots you run. The usage units defined by Quantinuum are H-System Quantum Credits (HQCs) for jobs submitted to quantum computers and emulator HQCs (eHQCs) for jobs submitted to emulators.

HQCs and eHQCs are used to calculate the cost of running a job, and they're calculated based on the following formula:

$$ HQC = 5 + C(N_{1q} + 10 N_{2q} + 5 N_m)/5000 $$

where:

  • $N_{1q}$ is the number of single-qubit operations in a circuit.
  • $N_{2q}$ is the number of native two-qubit operations in a circuit. Native gate is equivalent to CNOT up to several single-qubit gates.
  • $N_{m}$ is the number of state preparation and measurement (SPAM) operations in a circuit including initial implicit state preparation and any intermediate and final measurements and state resets.
  • $C$ is the shot count.

To learn more about Quantinuum, visit the Quantinuum provider page.

Quantinuum provides four subscription plans: Standard, Premium, Standard H1 + H2, and Premium H1 + H2. Quantinuum also offers a Pay as You Go offering.

Subscriptions are monthly subscription plans available through queued access.

Plans and Pricing Includes access to
Standard Plan: USD135,000/Month + Azure infrastructure costs
  • 10k HQCs for use on currently available Quantinuum hardware
  • 100k eHQCs for use on the Quantinuum emulators
Premium Plan: USD185,000/Month + Azure infrastructure costs
  • 17k HQCs for use on currently available Quantinuum hardware
  • 170k eHQCs for use on the Quantinuum emulators

For more information about Azure infrastructure costs, see Azure Blob Storage pricing.

Rigetti

Rigetti charges for job execution time on their quantum processors. There's no added charge per job, per shot, or per gate. The Quantum Virtual Machine (QVM) simulator is free for all users.

Rigetti offers one billing plan: Pay As You Go.

Pay As You Go

The Pay-as-you-go plan consists of a la carte access to Rigetti QPUs. The usage is charged based on the job execution time only.

Pricing Includes access to
USD 0.013 per 10-millisecond increment of job execution time Rigetti Ankaa-3

Note

If you have questions or run into any issue using Azure Quantum, you can contact AzureQuantumInfo@microsoft.com.

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