Quantum computers you can buy — article mark

Quantum computers you can buy

· updated

Three tiers exist today: a desktop NMR box (SpinQ, 2022 launch price ~$8k, now price on request), an on-premises enterprise system (quote only), or cloud time (free tiers up). Only the cloud tier is self-serve — every physical machine is a sales inquiry. Every count, site and price below has its source linked on the same row; anything without a source is marked unconfirmed.

How a quantum computer works — the stack

The quantum computing stack in six layers, top to bottom: SDK and cloud API, transpiler, logical qubits with error correction, quantum gates, control and readout, and the physical qubits kept cold at the bottom A circuit you submit at the top becomes pulses on physics at the bottom (software → hardware) 1 SDK & cloud API You write a circuit — Qiskit · Cirq · Braket SDK — and submit it to a backend. qc.h(0); qc.cx(0,1) 2 Transpiler Rewrites to the chip's native gate set and routes qubits onto its real topology. native gates · routing 3 Logical qubits — error correction Many noisy physical qubits encode one protected qubit (surface code, dual-rail). Helios: 98 phys → 50 logical 4 Quantum gates 1-qubit rotations + a 2-qubit entangler. Fidelity today: 99.5–99.99% per 2-qubit gate. H · RZ · CNOT / iSWAP 5 Control & readout Microwave or laser pulses drive each gate; measurement collapses the state to bits. pulses · N shots 6 Physical qubits The two-level system itself: transmon · trapped ion · neutral atom · spin · flux. ~10 mK fridge / UHV + lasers
Every machine below is one choice of layer 6 (the qubit) wrapped in the same layers 1–5. The vendor you buy from is really selling a layer-6 technology and the control plant that keeps it coherent. Helios figures: quantinuum.com (98 qubits, 50 logical).

What one computation does

A quantum computation in five stages: initialise all qubits to zero, put them in superposition with Hadamard gates, entangle them with CNOT, interfere amplitudes to amplify the answer, then measure to collapse to one classical bitstring read over many shots Superposition explores many states; interference amplifies the answer 1 · Init all qubits reset |00…0⟩ 2 · Superpose H on each qubit 2ⁿ states 3 · Entangle CNOT links qubits correlated 4 · Interfere cancel wrong paths amplify answer 5 · Measure collapse · repeat 011…1 The answer is a probability distribution, not a number — you run the circuit many times (shots) and read the histogram. Annealers (D-Wave) skip gates: they encode the problem as an energy landscape and relax to its lowest-energy state instead. n qubits hold 2ⁿ amplitudes — 50 qubits ≈ 10¹⁵ — which is why the useful count is small but powerful.
The gate model (IBM, IonQ, Quantinuum, Pasqal, Rigetti, SpinQ) runs a circuit of these stages. Quantum annealing (D-Wave) is a different model aimed at optimisation, so its qubit count is not comparable to a gate machine's.

Qubits per flagship system

Horizontal bar chart of qubit counts for flagship gate-model systems: IBM Heron r2 and r3 156, Pasqal Orion 140-plus, Rigetti Cepheus-1 107, Quantinuum Helios 98 physical and 50 logical, IonQ Forte 36, SpinQ Gemini Mini 2 Physical qubits, gate-model flagships (bar length = qubits; scale 0–160) IBM Heron r2/r3 156 Pasqal Orion 140+ Rigetti Cepheus-1 107 (cloud only) Quantinuum Helios 98 (50 logical) IonQ Forte 36 SpinQ Gemini Mini 2 (desktop NMR) D-Wave Advantage2 is an annealer with 4,400+ qubits (per its 8-K) — a different machine; not comparable to the gate counts above. Qubit count ≠ usefulness: fidelity, connectivity and logical qubits matter more. Helios' page states 50 logical qubits.
Sources: IBM Heron r2/r3 156 and Nighthawk 120 — ibm.com/quantum/systems; Pasqal 140+ — pasqal.com/hardware; Rigetti Cepheus-1-108Q, 107 qubits, cloud only — rigetti.com, GA 2026-04-07; Quantinuum Helios 98 / 50 logical — quantinuum.com (the launch release says 48 error-corrected, 50 error-detected; the product page's 50 is used here); IonQ Forte 36 — ionq.com; SpinQ Gemini Mini 2 — spinq.com; D-Wave 4,400+ — SEC 8-K, 2025-05-20.

Proof it’s real hardware

One row per named customer site. Status is the strongest claim the source supports — not what the vendor implies.

VendorPhysical machineCustomer siteDateStatusSource
IBMQuantum System Two, Heron 156qRIKEN, Kobe (JP)2025-06-24operatingthequantuminsider.com
IBMQuantum System Two, 2× Heron 156qBasque Government, San Sebastián (ES)2025-10-14inauguratedquantumcomputingreport.com
IBMQuantum System OneCleveland Clinic (US)2023installed (operating unconfirmed)research.ibm.com
IonQForte EnterpriseEPB, Chattanooga (US)2026-09-18operating (customer release)epb.com
IonQForte Enterprise, #AQ 36QuantumBasel (CH)2024-12operatingthequantuminsider.com
Pasqal2× neutral-atom QPU, >100q eachJülich (DE) · CEA/TGCC (FR)2025-11-13inauguratedpasqal.com
PasqalOrion “SOL”, 140qCINECA (IT)2026-06-11inauguratedpasqal.com
RigettiNovera QPU, 9qUniv. of Saskatchewan (CA)2026-03shipped (install unconfirmed)thequantuminsider.com
RigettiNovera QPU, 9qHorizon Quantum, Singapore (SG)unconfirmeddelivered (install unconfirmed)nasdaq.com
D-WaveAdvantage2Davidson Technologies, Huntsville (US)2025-04installed (operating unconfirmed)businesswire.com
D-WaveAdvantage (not Advantage2)Jülich (DE)2025-02purchased (operating unconfirmed)thequantuminsider.com
QuantinuumReimei, H1-series, 20qRIKEN (JP)2025-02operatingquantinuum.com
QuantinuumHeliosSingapore (SG)2026 (expected)announced, unconfirmedquantinuum.com
SpinQGemini, 2q NMRauthors’ labs, Canada · Taiwan · China2021operating (peer-reviewed)EPJ Quantum Technology

Not listed on purpose: D-Wave/Yonsei (MOU only), Quantinuum/Qatar (joint venture, no hardware), Rigetti Fermilab SQMS and AFRL (sales reported, installs unconfirmed), SpinQ CYCU and ITB deliveries (vendor claims only).

1 · On-premises enterprise systems (quote-based)

VendorQubit technologyCurrent systemScaleHow to buySource
IBMSuperconductingQuantum System Two — Heron r2/r3 · Nighthawk156 phys · 120 phys”Contact IBM”; no list priceibm.com/quantum/systems
PasqalNeutral atom140+ · Vela 200+ · Centaurus 500+140+ phys (deployed)“commercial terms” via sales; one contract reported ≈ €13.0Mpasqal.com/hardware · SEC filing
RigettiSuperconductingCepheus-1-108Q (cloud only) · Novera QPU (on-prem)107 phys cloud · 9 phys on-premsales quote; Novera from $900k (reported), QPU only — buyer supplies fridge + controlrigetti.com · sdxcentral.com
QuantinuumTrapped ionHelios (cloud; on-prem “Hardware-as-a-Service”, Singapore announced) · Reimei H1 at RIKEN98 phys / 50 logical · 20 physsales contract (HaaS); no public pricequantinuum.com · Helios · launch release
IonQTrapped ionForte · Forte Enterprise (#AQ 36)36 physcontact sales; no list priceionq.com · Forte
D-WaveQuantum annealingAdvantage24,400+ anneal”available to purchase for on-premises ownership” (8-K); contact form onlySEC 8-K · dwavequantum.com

Every row is a sales contract — none of these publish a list price. Google Quantum AI is cloud access only, not sold.

2 · Desktop NMR (sales inquiry)

ProductQubitsPriceBuySource
SpinQ Gemini Mini2 (vendor spec)on request; 2022 launch ¥1,188,000 (~$8k); ¥1,408,000 at Switch Science (sold out)“Ask to Buy” (sales) · JP reseller special orderspinq.com · 2022 launch · switch-science.com
SpinQ Gemini Mini Pro2on request”Ask to Buy” (sales)spinq.com
SpinQ Triangulum II3on request”Ask to Buy” (sales)spinq.com
SpinQ Gemini Labunconfirmed¥6,930,000 incl. tax”Add to cart” at Switch Science (JP), 2–3 month leadswitch-science.com

Room-temperature NMR, aimed at teaching circuits. No genuine entanglement: room-temperature NMR states are separable — Braunstein et al., PRL 83, 1054 (1999), arXiv:quant-ph/9811018.

3 · Cloud access (rent instead of buy)

ProviderWhat you getLink
IBM Quantum10 min quantum runtime per 28 days free (Open Plan) · Heron 156q, Nighthawk 120qquantum.ibm.com · Open Plan
Amazon BraketMulti-vendor QPUs: IQM · Rigetti · AQT · IonQ · QuEraaws.amazon.com/braket
IonQ Quantum CloudIonQ systems direct, also on AWS / Azure / Google Cloudionq.com/quantum-cloud
Azure QuantumMulti-vendor QPU access via the QDK / Q#learn.microsoft.com/quantum
Google Quantum AICirq-based access to Google’s processors; cloud onlyquantumai.google

4 · Price tiers

TierKnown price pointsWhoBuy how
Cloudfree → pay-as-you-goanyoneself-serve ✓
Desktop NMRGemini Mini: 2022 launch ~$8k, now on request · Gemini Lab ¥6,930,000 (JP reseller)schools, hobbyistssales inquiry ✗ (one reseller cart, JP only)
On-prem QPURigetti Novera 9q from $900k (reported)labs with their own fridgesales quote ✗
On-prem systemPasqal/CINECA ≈ €13.0M (reported, SEC filing); no other public priceenterprise, national labssales quote ✗

TL;DR

TL;DR: A quantum computer is one qubit technology (layer 6) wrapped in a gate/control/compiler/API stack. In October 2026 nothing physical is self-serve: the cheapest machine is SpinQ’s 2-qubit desktop NMR (2022 launch ~$8k, now “Ask to Buy”; one Japanese reseller carts the Gemini Lab at ¥6,930,000), and every utility-scale system — IBM Heron 156q, Pasqal 140q, Rigetti Cepheus-1 107q (cloud only; on-prem is the 9q Novera), Quantinuum Helios 98q/50 logical, IonQ Forte 36q, D-Wave 4,400q annealer — is a sales contract. Two real price points exist: Novera from $900k and Pasqal/CINECA ≈ €13.0M, both reported. Confirmed on-prem installs: IBM (RIKEN, San Sebastián, Cleveland Clinic), IonQ (EPB, QuantumBasel), Pasqal (Jülich, CEA, CINECA), Quantinuum (RIKEN Reimei 20q); Rigetti and D-Wave deliveries are confirmed, operation is not; Helios on-prem is announced only. Rent first: cloud runs free (IBM: 10 min/28 days) to pay-as-you-go on IBM, Braket, IonQ, Azure and Google. Qubit count alone is marketing; fidelity, connectivity and logical qubits decide what runs.

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