Cloud AI bills you forever, per token. A machine on your premises is a one-time buy plus electricity. Here's the honest math — adjust every number to your situation.
Your numbers
Every field is editable. Defaults are ballpark — swap in real figures.
Usage
tok/mo
~750 words ≈ 1,000 tokens. A busy support desk runs tens of millions/mo.
Renting (cloud API)
$/1M tok
Blended in+out. Check current provider pricing.
Owning (your box)
$
months
tok/sec
watts
watts
$/kWh
Iowa averages roughly $0.11–0.14/kWh. Use the client's real rate.
Verdict at this volume
—
—
Rent · cloud
— /mo
Per token—
Scales with everytoken, forever
Own · on-prem
— /mo
Hardware (amortized)—
Electricity—
Rent
Own
Monthly difference
—
—
Hardware payback
—
time to recoup the box from savings
Break-even volume
—
where owning starts beating renting
Energy used
—
kWh/mo running this workload
Beyond the dollars
Cost isn't the only reason to own it.
Your customer data never leaves the building — no third party ever sees it.
Flat, predictable cost. No per-token meter running while you sleep.
Works offline. No outage, rate limit, or price hike from a vendor you don't control.
For anyone handling customer PII, that control is often worth more than the raw savings.