OpenAI
ChatGPT
20 USD / month$20 USD/month · published price
52months of ChatGPT Plus
After electricity: about 94 months to reach subscription-cost parity.
Adjust monthly price
Using published source price: $20 USD/month.
Does local actually pay off?
Compare the cost of running the same model. Then put the investment in perspective.
SIMULATINGQwen3 8B
Q4 8K context 30 tok/s targetQwen3 8B · Q4_K_M · 8K context
Complete computerRunning costs included
CUMULATIVE SPENDING
See when local pays off.
BREAK-EVEN5.6 months
Local vs Runpod · RTX A5000 · 24 GB
Purchase and electricity included
Local · purchase + electricityCloud · usage + extras
At 9 months: local 1 129 USD · cloud 1 774 USD. The timeline always includes break-even.
5.6 months
Until purchase + electricity equals Runpod · RTX A5000 · 24 GB. After that, local saves about 188 USD each month at this usage.
Local electricity / month9 USD
Cloud bill / month197 USD
Local saves / month188 USD
THE CLOUD ALTERNATIVE
SELF-HOSTEDThe same weights. A rented machine.
No current API quote verified for this model and context. These rentals can host your selected weights instead.
$0.27/hpublished compute rate77–94 tok/ssimulated aggregate throughput
Fits in GPU memory at Q4_K_M. Throughput is a simulation of this GPU, not a provider benchmark. You deploy and operate the model.
Provider price source Checked 2026-10-07 · USD list prices
730 billed hours/month, including idle time. Same always-ready assumption as local.
PUT THE TOKEN COUNT TO WORK
How much would you need to generate?
OUTPUT TOKENS AT BREAK-EVEN670M
2.7B total input + output tokens at your 3:1 mix.
TIME ACTUALLY GENERATING170 days
4,100 hours at 46 aggregate tok/s. Calendar time: 5.6 months.
At continuous 24/7 generation5.6 months
Recalculated at 100% utilization. Token timing is a decode-only ceiling; prompt processing, loading and interruptions make real completion slower. A missing result can also mean the rental cannot keep up.
A different way to spend it
What else could that investment buy?
Frontier subscriptions include different models, features, and limits. These figures show financial scale only; they are not equivalent to local inference, and token allowances are not comparable.
Consumer plan
Anthropic
Claude
20 USD / month$20 USD/month · published price
52months of Claude Pro
After electricity: about 94 months to reach subscription-cost parity.
Adjust monthly price
Using published source price: $20 USD/month.
Cursor
Cursor
20 USD / month$20 USD/month · published price
52months of Cursor Pro
After electricity: about 94 months to reach subscription-cost parity.
Adjust monthly price
Using published source price: $20 USD/month.
USD list prices are converted using the simulator’s bundled exchange rate. Taxes, regional pricing, plan limits, and subscription features can differ; check the provider source before purchasing.
How this calculation stays honest
Cash break-even, not profit. Purchase price ÷ (monthly cloud cost − monthly local electricity). No payback exists when local operating costs are higher. Electricity is counted only when “Include electricity” is on. A month is 730 hours. ROI settings are saved in this browser.
Equal output volume. Both sides serve the same input and output token counts. Rental runtime uses its own simulated throughput; instances too slow or too small are excluded. Hosted APIs may differ in precision, context support, rate limits and latency.
Time is a best-case estimate. Output volume = aggregate decode tokens/s × generating seconds. It excludes prompt processing and setup time. Always-ready rental bills all 730 hours; stopped rental is a lower bound with cold starts excluded.
What is outside the estimate? Maintenance, internet upgrades, cooling beyond entered watts, financing, resale value and future price changes. GPU rental storage and tax start at zero; add your expected costs. Taxes already included in a local price are not removed.
Subscriptions are context. Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor provide different models, tools and usage limits. Their purchasing-power comparison is not an equivalent-model ROI or a promise of unlimited token capacity.
Put usage next to ownership
Compare local AI costs with APIs and cloud GPUs
Estimate a break-even point by comparing a local system's purchase and electricity costs with the same model through a token-priced API or an hourly rented GPU. Monthly token volume, active hours, utilization, ownership period and power assumptions can change the result. Treat subscriptions separately: a flat plan buys access under its own limits, not a directly comparable token rate.
Questions people ask
How many tokens do I need before local hardware breaks even?
There is no universal token threshold. It depends on the hardware purchase price, electricity, expected ownership period, local throughput and how much you use the machine, as well as the API's price for the same model. Set assumptions that resemble your real use and compare the plotted monthly costs. The break-even estimate is a scenario, not a guarantee of savings.
Can I compare a subscription with pay-as-you-go API pricing?
You can include subscription spending for context, but it is not an apples-to-apples per-token price. A subscription generally provides access within a provider's product rules and usage limits, while API pricing is usually metered by tokens and model. The calculator keeps those costs distinct so a flat monthly plan does not imply unlimited usage or equivalent model access.
How are hourly cloud GPU costs different from API costs?
A rented GPU is billed for time, so cost depends on hourly rate, setup and idle time, utilization, and the model's actual throughput on that hardware. An API is billed by usage under its token rates and may bundle hosting and scaling. This estimate compares the same model where the selected options allow it, but provider limits, storage, tax and other fees can change your invoice.