Rigetti Novera QPU

Overview

Rigetti Novera is a quantum processor you can buy. Instead of renting time over the cloud, a customer purchases a 9-qubit chip, installs it in a dilution refrigerator, and operates it with their own or Rigetti-supplied control electronics. When it launched, Rigetti described it as its first commercially available QPU, with pricing starting at about 900,000 dollars.

The chip is a small version of the technology Rigetti uses in its larger systems. That makes it valuable for groups that want to study the full quantum stack, from the qubits to the control software, without relying on the cloud.

History and background

Rigetti Computing was founded in 2013 and built its own fabrication line in Fremont, California. After years of cloud-only access, it responded to customer demand for hardware ownership by introducing the Novera QPU in December 2023, based on its fourth-generation Ankaa-class architecture first unveiled in August 2023. Shipping time was quoted at four to six weeks.

Customers have included Horizon Quantum Computing, which received a Novera in April 2024, and Montana State University, which in August 2025 became the first academic institution with an on-premises Rigetti computer. Rigetti later reported purchase orders worth about 5.7 million dollars for two Novera systems, for customers in Asia and the United States. The company also created a Novera QPU Partner Program to link customers with suppliers of control electronics, cryogenic equipment, and software.

How it works

The Novera chip carries 9 flux-tunable transmon qubits arranged on a square lattice, with tunable couplers between neighbors. Each qubit can be tuned to a different frequency by a magnetic flux, and each coupler can switch interactions between its neighbors. Three-qubit columns share a readout line, a design that reduces wiring. A second 5-qubit chip in the package is meant for testing single-qubit operations.

Everything below the mixing-chamber plate of a dilution refrigerator is included in the QPU package. The customer provides the refrigerator, which cools the chip to around 10 to 20 millikelvin, and the room-temperature electronics that generate microwave pulses and read out the qubits. Rigetti sells control systems or can integrate partner hardware.

Because the chip is small, it is a good platform for studying calibration and control. The Quantum Machines test is an example: using an external orchestration platform and automated calibration software, the team achieved 99.5% median two-qubit fidelity and 99.93% median single-qubit fidelity, indicating that the chip's performance is not limited by Rigetti's own control stack.

Connectivity

Square lattice with tunable couplers (12 available couplings, 11 active in one benchmark)

Specifications in detail

Key features

• 9-qubit chip with tunable couplers and a square lattice
• A companion 5-qubit chip for testing single-qubit operations
• Median fidelity of about 99.9% for single-qubit and 99.6% for two-qubit gates (Rigetti figures)
• Built at Rigetti's Fab-1 in Fremont, California
• Designed to plug into a customer's existing cryogenic and control systems

Limitations

• Only 9 qubits, so it is too small for large algorithm demonstrations
• Requires a dilution refrigerator and control electronics, which add major cost
• Two-qubit fidelity is below the best published values on other platforms
• Not offered as a cloud service

Timeline

What it is used for

• Research on control, calibration, and error mitigation
• Education and training in quantum hardware
• Testing software stacks on real superconducting qubits
• Prototyping before buying larger systems

How it compares

• Compared with IQM Garnet (20 qubits), Novera has fewer than half as many qubits and is sold as a bare QPU for customer cryogenics.
• Compared with IBM Heron or Google Willow, it is far smaller, and its purpose is on-premises research rather than large circuits.
• Compared with Rigetti's own Cepheus-1-108Q, built from twelve 9-qubit chiplets, Novera is the basic building block.

Technical notes

Novera is a small version of Rigetti's 84-qubit Ankaa architecture. Its first buyers included research groups building their own control stacks. In an independent test, Quantum Machines operated a Novera with external control hardware and reached 99.5% median two-qubit fidelity across active couplings, with full calibration completed in ten days, which showed that the chip works with third-party electronics.

Why it matters

Novera shows that quantum hardware is becoming a product that universities and companies can own. That changes who can do hardware research, and it supports the idea that quantum computers will sit next to supercomputers in data centers.

Its small size also makes it a clean test bed. Many lessons about calibration, noise, and control that apply to much bigger machines can be learned on nine qubits, at far lower cost.

Frequently asked questions

Keep exploring

• Company profile: Rigetti Computing
• Related processor: IQM Garnet
• Related processor: IBM Heron (r1, r2, and r3)
• Related processor: RIKEN-Fujitsu 64-Qubit Superconducting Quantum Computer

This profile is written for educational purposes and summarizes company announcements, published papers, and vendor specification sheets. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026. Figures marked as company-reported have not all been independently verified, and benchmarks differ between vendors, so compare them with care.

← Back to Hardware Database