The Real Price of a Quantum Computer in 2025

From classroom demonstrators to enterprise-grade machines, quantum hardware now ranges from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions.

Quantum computing has moved from theory to a global technology race. Governments, big tech companies and specialised startups are pouring money into machines that exploit superposition and entanglement to tackle problems classical computers struggle with—from materials discovery to logistics and cryptography. But as interest in “Q-Day” grows, one question keeps coming back: how much does a quantum computer actually cost? 

According to new analysis published by The Quantum Insider on 8 December, there are two main ways to pay for quantum computing today: owning the hardware or renting access via the cloud. Buying a full on-premise system means paying not just for the quantum processing unit, but also dilution refrigerators or laser systems, cryogenics, radio-frequency electronics, control racks, shielding, clean-room infrastructure, software and long-term maintenance. Public procurement data and vendor hints suggest that even “entry-level” research systems land in the multi-million-dollar range, while a fully built-out facility with integration and multi-year service can climb into the tens of millions of dollars per installation. 

Most organisations, however, don’t buy the box—they rent quantum computing as a cloud service. Platforms such as AWS Braket and Azure Quantum publish price lists where customers pay a task fee plus a “per-shot” price for running quantum circuits on different vendors’ processors. Representative figures compiled in the article include roughly $0.0009–$0.03 per shot on gate-based devices via AWS, around $300 per QPU-hour for PASQAL’s neutral-atom machines, and enterprise subscriptions with Quantinuum starting around $135,000 per month for higher-end access tiers. 

At the lower end of the spectrum, there are educational and desktop-scale systems—typically NMR-based demonstrators—priced between $5,000 and $50,000. These devices are useful for curricula and outreach but are not general-purpose quantum computers suitable for serious industrial workloads. At the other extreme, national labs and major corporations are building bespoke facilities that combine several quantum modalities with high-performance classical clusters, significantly increasing total cost of ownership. 

Conclusions

The 2025 price landscape confirms that quantum computing is still in the “supercomputer era” of costs: transformative potential, but hardware accessible only to governments, large companies and well-funded labs. For everyone else, cloud-based Quantum-as-a-Service is the realistic entry point—allowing experiments with real quantum processors for a few dollars per run instead of writing eight-figure cheques. As hardware matures and competition increases, analysts expect prices to fall, but for now quantum computing remains a premium, strategic technology rather than a commodity resource.