Understanding device costs and billing

We will now look at the very important topic of device costs. We will look at the published device costs and then also explore how to estimate the cost of a QPU or simulator device based on the number of shots the device is used for. The number of shots is the number of times the circuit will be recreated, run, and the end results measured by the device. Since quantum systems have probabilistic results, this process requires multiple shots to get the probability distribution of all the possible results.

QPU versus simulator devices

QPU devices are charged a fee per task and then there is a per shot charge. The number of qubits you measure at the end of your circuit will, to some extent, determine the number of shots.

Figure 3.14 – Cost of QPU devices available in Amazon Braket (these prices are correct as of May 2022; check the current prices at https://aws.amazon.com/braket/pricing/)

In order to limit the...