---
title: How to Create a Cluster
url: https://docs.vultr.com/products/compute/clusters/how-to-create-a-cluster
description: Create a Vultr cluster subscription by specifying a region, plan, and pool size using the Vultr API for VPS, bare-metal, or GPU fabric workloads.
publish_date: 2026-04-17T14:08:52.807183Z
last_updated: 2026-04-23T16:40:15.126653Z
---

A cluster is a logical container that organizes compute resources under a single definition with shared networking. Creating a cluster provisions the container and optionally deploys instances based on the specified plan and pool count.

Clusters support three types:

* **vps**: Cloud compute instances available in multiple plan categories including Shared CPU, Dedicated CPU, CPU Optimized, and General Purpose, suitable for a wide range of workloads from web applications to compute-intensive services.
* **bare-metal**: Single-tenant physical servers dedicated to one customer, offering maximum performance and direct hardware access without a hypervisor layer.
* **gpu-fabric**: GPU servers interconnected with automated high-performance fabric networking (RoCE or InfiniBand), designed for AI/ML training, distributed inference, and HPC workloads that require low-latency, high-bandwidth communication between nodes.

This guide explains how to create a cluster using a plan directly using the Vultr API. To create a cluster using a reusable instance template, see [How to Create a Cluster Using an Instance Template](https://docs.vultr.com/products/compute/clusters/how-to-create-a-cluster-using-an-instance-template).

1. Send a `GET` request to the [**Get Cluster Availability** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/clusters/operation/get-cluster-availability) to check available cluster types in your target region. Replace `REGION` with the region identifier (e.g., `ewr`, `ord`).

    ```console
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/clusters/availability" \
        -X GET \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d '{
            "region": "REGION",
            "type": "vps"
        }'
    ```

    The response contains the available cluster types and plans for the specified region.

1. Send a `POST` request to the [**Create Cluster** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/clusters/operation/create-cluster) to create a new cluster. Replace `REGION` with the region identifier, `PLAN` with the compute plan, and `CLUSTER-LABEL` with a descriptive name. Set `type` to `vps`, `bare-metal`, or `gpu-fabric`. The `desired_pool_count` must be equal to or greater than `min_pool_count`.

    ```console
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/clusters" \
        -X POST \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d '{
            "region": "REGION",
            "plan": "PLAN",
            "label": "CLUSTER-LABEL",
            "type": "vps",
            "min_pool_count": 2,
            "desired_pool_count": 2,
            "os_id": 2284,
            "hostname": "HOSTNAME",
            "notify_activate": true
        }'
    ```

    A successful request returns an HTTP `200 OK` response with the cluster details. Note the cluster `id` for future operations.

1. Send a `GET` request to the [**Get Cluster** endpoint](https://www.vultr.com/api/#tag/clusters/operation/get-cluster) to retrieve the cluster details. Replace `{cluster-id}` with the id from the previous step.

    ```console
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/clusters/{cluster-id}" \
        -X GET \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"
    ```

    Verify that the cluster status progresses from `Pending` to `Active` once all instances are provisioned.