D-Wave Leap pricing in 2026: free trial, then $70,000 for a 12-month contract
D-Wave's Leap cloud offers a free trial (1 minute of QPU or hybrid-solver time, expiring a month after signup) and commercial access sold by contract, with one public price point: a 12-month Leap Access contract listed by D-Wave on AWS Marketplace at $70,000. D-Wave is also paradigm-distinct: the Advantage2 is a 4,400-plus-qubit quantum annealer, not a gate-model machine, so its pricing and its qubits are not directly comparable to IBM, IonQ or Rigetti. This page states the verified free-trial terms and the one published commercial price, rather than republish a stale 2023 figure.
1.How D-Wave Leap bills
The Leap free trial is genuinely free: 1 minute of QPU or hybrid-solver time, expiring one month after signup (D-Wave developer page, read 22 October 2026). D-Wave separately runs the Leap Quantum LaunchPad programme, a 3-month free trial for qualified applicants. Commercial Leap access is sold by contract. The one published price is D-Wave's own AWS Marketplace listing: Leap Access at $70,000 for a 12-month contract, which entitles a specified quantity of use that the listing does not state, non-refundable, with private offers for other terms (read 22 October 2026). Older 2023 coverage cited a per-hour figure we do not republish. Because Advantage2 is an annealer, it targets optimisation and sampling workloads rather than the gate-model circuits the rest of this site prices.
2.D-Wave Leap devices and verified rates
Table 1: D-Wave Leap offerings, 2026
| Offering | Tech | Qubits | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D-Wave Leap: Trial | annealer | 4400 | $0 free trial | verified primary |
| D-Wave Leap: Commercial | annealer | 4400 | quote n/a | quote only |
Each offering links to its full per-device analysis. Rates last re-verified live 22 October 2026 against the source on each provider page. Estimate a specific job with the cost calculator.
3.Frequently asked questions
How much does D-Wave quantum cost?
D-Wave Leap has a free trial (1 minute of QPU or hybrid-solver time, expiring a month after signup). Commercial access is sold by contract. D-Wave's own AWS Marketplace listing prices a 12-month Leap Access contract at $70,000; the listing does not say how much usage that buys, and other terms are by private offer. Older 2023 per-hour figures should not be treated as current.
Is D-Wave a real quantum computer?
D-Wave's Advantage2 is a quantum annealer with over 4,400 flux qubits, not a gate-model (universal) quantum computer like IBM, IonQ or Rigetti. It solves optimisation and sampling problems by quantum annealing rather than running arbitrary circuits, so its pricing, qubit count and fidelity are not directly comparable to the gate-model providers priced elsewhere on this site.
See also: cost calculator · IonQ pricing · Rigetti pricing · all-provider price reference · providers index · methodology. Independent reference, no affiliate revenue. Corrections: oliver@digitalsignet.com.