Own AI server or API — which is cheaper?
Enter how many tokens you process a month. You see the API bill, the cost of a rented GPU running the same hours, whether that server can keep up at all, and how much your volume would have to grow before self-hosting pays off.
Server capacity: about 78.8 M output tokens a month. Server busy 13% of the rented time
API prices are list prices from each vendor’s pricing page; batch discounts and caching can lower them.
Why the answer is usually “API” at first
An API charges only for what you use. A server costs the same when it idles at night. For low and uneven volumes the API wins easily — the maths changes when the GPU is busy most of the day.
When self-hosting makes sense anyway
Privacy (data never leaves your server), predictable cost at high volume, fine-tuned models the APIs do not offer, and no rate limits. Those are good reasons even when the price is similar.
Questions people ask
Where do the tokens-per-second numbers come from?
They depend on the model, the GPU and how many users share it. Measure with your own setup if you can; the default is a conservative figure for a mid-size model on one card.
Are open models as good as paid APIs?
For many tasks — summaries, extraction, classification, chat on your own documents — the best open models are close. For the hardest reasoning the top paid models still lead.
Sources
Prices come from each provider’s own pricing page on the date shown. Providers change prices often — the checkout has the final word.