Requirements
Runpod Hybrid Cloud is available to organizations only. The Runpod team must enable External Compute for your org account before the feature appears in your console. Contact us to get set up.How it works
1
Add your machine
In the console, go to Resources → External compute and click Add compute. Give your machine a name and click Next.
2
Install the host agent
Copy the install command that appears and paste it into an SSH session on your machine. This installs the Runpod host agent, a small program that connects your machine to Runpod over an encrypted connection. Open the required firewall ports, then reboot. For full instructions, see Set up external compute.
3
Wait for verification
Runpod runs automated hardware checks in the background. Verification usually takes several minutes, and you don’t need to do anything. When verification is complete, the machine’s status changes to Online and its GPU type appears in the console.
4
Deploy from the same console
Your team deploys Pods exactly as they would for any Runpod machine. An External Compute section appears in the GPU picker showing your available hardware. The deploy experience is identical to standard Runpod Pods. See Deploy Pods on your external compute. External compute usage is tracked in the console so you can see how many GPUs are in use at any time.
What you get
One control plane across owned and cloud compute Manage the hardware you own and Runpod cloud as a single estate. No scheduling scripts, access tickets, or per-silo tooling. Consistent developer experience Your team gets the same Runpod console, CLI, and APIs on the hardware you own. SSH still works. Your hardware, your data, your boundary You own the hardware and the data on it. Runpod orchestrates it without taking ownership. Everything you onboard is visible only to your organization. No lock-in The host agent uninstalls cleanly. Your workloads are standard containers.Who it’s for
Runpod Hybrid Cloud is built for teams that own GPU infrastructure and want to put it to work without replatforming.- Research institutions and universities: Give researchers self-service access to the institution’s GPUs, with Runpod cloud absorbing overflow when the queue is full.
- Enterprise teams: Unify on-prem clusters, hyperscaler reservations, and Runpod cloud under one control plane with org-scoped governance.
- AI-native startups: Focus on your core product instead of building your own abstraction across compute providers. Runpod gives you a provider-agnostic API layer out of the box, so you can run on your own hardware first and burst to Runpod cloud without changing how your team deploys.