Quantum cloud computing services, compared

Which route fits which need

The machines table lists the clouds that reach each machine.

• Free hardware time with no application: IBM's Open Plan, Open Quantum's Spark Credits or Qollab's monthly credits. Where hardware time is free gives the terms.
• Several makers' machines from one account: Amazon Braket, Azure Quantum, qBraid or Open Quantum. Scaleway and OVHcloud sell access to European machines.
• IBM's processors: IBM Quantum Platform. Its free Open Plan reaches three 156-qubit Heron processors.
• Trapped ions: IonQ Forte on Braket, Azure, qBraid, Open Quantum or Qollab. Quantinuum H2 on Azure or Quantinuum Nexus. AQT IBEX Q1 on Braket or Scaleway.
• Neutral atoms in analog mode: QuEra Aquila on Braket. Pasqal's FRESNEL on Pasqal Cloud, Azure or Scaleway.
• Annealing, for optimization problems: D-Wave Leap.
• No install, from a browser: IBM Quantum Composer builds circuits by drag and drop and runs them on IBM machines once you sign in. Qollab runs Python on IonQ Forte.

Where hardware time is free

Free simulators are far more common than free hardware time; Free quantum computer simulators compares them.

With a sign-up:

• IBM Open Plan: up to 10 minutes of runtime per rolling 28-day window. IBM has opened ibm_fez, ibm_marrakesh and ibm_kingston, three 156-qubit Heron processors, to Open Plan users. Open Plan instances sit in IBM's us-east region and run jobs and batches. Sessions need a paid plan.
• Open Quantum: $50 of compute every 90 days, as 25 Spark Credits. The credits work only on Public Compute, which routes jobs through qBitTensor Labs and a decentralized network, and they expire after 90 days. Open Quantum's machines are IonQ Forte, Rigetti Cepheus, IQM Emerald and Garnet, and AQT IBEX Q1.
• Qollab: every account gets 100 credits for IonQ Forte hardware every 30 days, and unspent credits lapse. The runner quotes each run before it spends, so start with a small shot count.

With conditions:

• IBM's one-time offer: 180 minutes over 12 months, then back to the standard 10. A non-trial account qualifies once it has used 20 minutes of runtime within a 12-month period. IBM's plans page calls the 180 minutes "additional"; its announcement sets the terms.
• Quantum Inspire: free for non-commercial use on QuTech's Tuna-5, Tuna-9 and Tuna-17 chips. A person approves each account.
• D-Wave's Leap Quantum LaunchPad: a three-month trial on D-Wave's annealers. You apply, and not every application is accepted.
• IonQ Research Credits: up to $10,000 in funding for academic researchers, by application.
• Qollab Grant Program: IonQ compute credits for open-source work on Qollab. Porting existing work or extending a Qollab project earns up to $10,000, and original work up to $20,000. The team reviews each submission, and the credits expire three months after they reach your account.

Advertised, but offline: Alice & Bob offers one free QPU hour a month on its Boson 4 cat-qubit chip, through Google Cloud Marketplace. Boson 4 is offline for a lengthy maintenance operation.

A first hardware job

On IBM's Open Plan

On IBM's Open Plan, you go from sign-up to a real machine without a payment or an application:

1. Sign in to IBM Quantum Platform with an IBM Cloud account and create an Open Plan instance in the us-east region. IBM Cloud asks a new account for a credit card to verify identity; the Open Plan itself costs nothing.
2. Generate an API key on the dashboard and copy your instance's CRN.
3. Install the SDK with pip install qiskit qiskit-ibm-runtime.
4. Save the key once, then run the code below.

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit
from qiskit.transpiler import generate_preset_pass_manager
from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
from qiskit_ibm_runtime.executor_sampler import Sampler

# Once: QiskitRuntimeService.save_account(token="<your-api-key>", instance="<CRN>")
service = QiskitRuntimeService()
backend = service.least_busy(simulator=False, operational=True)

qc = QuantumCircuit(2)
qc.h(0)
qc.cx(0, 1)
qc.measure_all()

pm = generate_preset_pass_manager(backend=backend, optimization_level=1)
isa_qc = pm.run(qc)             # rewrite the circuit for this machine's gates

job = Sampler(mode=backend).run([isa_qc], shots=1000)
print(job.job_id())             # the job waits in IBM's queue
counts = job.result()[0].data.meas.get_counts()
print(counts)                   # mostly 00 and 11

The code picks the least busy machine your instance can use and rewrites the circuit into that machine's native gates. It then sends 1,000 shots. job.result() waits until the job has run. On hardware, noise adds a few 01 and 10 results to the 00 and 11. The Sampler import is the one IBM introduced in qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.50, which marks the older from qiskit_ibm_runtime import Sampler as legacy.

To try the code first without spending minutes, install qiskit-aer, import FakeFez from qiskit_ibm_runtime.fake_provider, and replace the two service lines with backend = FakeFez(). That runs a local copy of ibm_fez, with its noise, and needs no account.

On the other clouds

The other clouds change four things: the install, the sign-in, the device ID and the call that submits. These lines follow each cloud's own quickstart.

The same circuit on Qollab

On Qollab the backend is created for you, so the install, sign-in and device lines disappear. Qollab holds the IonQ account and key. You need a free Qollab account to run on hardware. IonQ is Qollab's hardware partner, and IonQ Forte is the only hardware Qollab reaches. The snippets above run in your own Python environment; this one runs in Qollab's playground.

# 'backend' is pre-created for you in the Qollab Playground.
from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

qc = QuantumCircuit(2, 2)
qc.h(0)
qc.cx(0, 1)
qc.measure([0, 1], [0, 1])

job = backend.run(qc, shots=1000)
counts = job.result().get_counts()
print(counts)                   # e.g. {'00': 491, '01': 2, '10': 6, '11': 501}

To run the Qollab example:

1. Press Run on Qollab under the code. The project opens in a new tab.
2. Press Run on Qollab there. The Run dialog opens, headed Select QPU.
3. Under the remote simulators, pick IonQ Forte 1 for a run with Forte's noise model. Signed out, the dialog marks it Credits apply; the run still costs nothing.
4. To run on the machine itself, sign in. When IonQ reports its machines, the same dialog lists Forte 1 and Forte Enterprise 1 hardware, which spend credits.

Without an account you get one run. On IonQ, each run takes one job, so pass backend.run a single circuit. The playground needs a browser with WebAssembly JSPI: a recent Chrome, Edge or Opera, or Firefox 153 or later.

The services compared

Sign up and run

Each service in this table lets anyone create an account and send a job to real hardware, without an application. Prices change often, so each row links the service's own rates. Can you buy a quantum computer? prices two circuits across several of them.

By application, contract or approval

IQM Resonance reaches IQM's Garnet, Emerald and Sirius. Quandela Cloud reaches Ascella and Belenos. Both take an account and an API token; check each maker's site for current plans.

Fujitsu offers its 256-qubit machine to companies and research institutions, by inquiry.

Origin Quantum Cloud and SPINQ Cloud are run from China. Origin Quantum Cloud reaches the 180-qubit Origin Wukong and says it serves users worldwide. SPINQ Cloud lists machines of 25, 3 and 2 qubits.

Machines and where they run

Qubit counts are as the maker states them, or as a cloud does where the maker's pages do not. A gate-based machine runs circuits. An analog machine runs a program for how its atoms evolve. An annealer solves optimization problems. Their qubit counts do not compare with a gate-based machine's.

Makers without a public sign-up today:

• Google Quantum AI: Willow has 105 qubits. Google says "No public access to the service is available at this time"; its early access program for Willow went to selected researchers.
• Atom Computing: its AC1000 is installed and operated on premises.
• Infleqtion: cloud access to its Sqale computer is in private beta.
• Microsoft: announced its Majorana 2 chip in June 2026. Azure Quantum lists no Microsoft hardware.
• IonQ Tempo: a system with a target of 100 qubits, with cloud access listed for late 2026.

Retired or changed since 2024

• Xanadu's Quantum Cloud is no longer available, Xanadu's documentation says.
• IBM removed the Lite Plan on 14 March 2025 and closed IBM Quantum Platform Classic on 1 July 2025. Its Eagle processors are retired. In July 2026 IBM renamed Qiskit Runtime to IBM Quantum Compute Service, with no code changes.
• IonQ lists Aria 1, Aria 2 and Harmony as retired. Braket removed Aria-1 on 2 March 2026; Azure's target list still shows it.
• Quantinuum retired H1-1 on 15 October 2025. It deprecated job submission through pytket-quantinuum, slated for removal by 30 November 2025.
• Amazon Braket added AQT IBEX-Q1 in November 2025 and Rigetti Cepheus-1-108Q in April 2026.
• Azure Quantum has supported four regions since 30 September 2025. Microsoft announced that workspaces in the other regions would be deleted.

Questions people ask

A snapshot, October 2026

Every service, machine and term on this page was read on the vendors' own pages between 14 and 21 October 2026. Devices join and leave clouds, and free offers start and end, from month to month. Check the linked page before you plan around it. Where a vendor's own pages disagree, this page follows its device or target list.

The IBM code ran on 21 October 2026 against FakeFez, IBM's local copy of ibm_fez. The Braket submit and result lines ran on Braket's local simulator. Versions: qiskit 2.6.0, qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.50.0, qiskit-aer 0.18.0 and amazon-braket-sdk 1.127.3.post0. The Azure and IonQ lines follow their documentation. The Qollab example ran on qollab.xyz the same day.

Related

• Can you buy a quantum computer? What one costs, and how to run one free
• Free quantum computer simulators you can use today
• Quantum programming languages and SDKs, compared
• Compute backends
• Before you spend credits