LLM Self-Hosted vs API Calculator

The break-even point is when your total self-hosted costs (including the one-time setup) equal your total API costs. After this point, self-hosting becomes more cost-effective. The calculator shows exactly when this happens based on your input.

Check your API provider's dashboard for monthly token usage. For self-hosted estimates, multiply average requests per month by average tokens per request. Most chat applications use 500-2000 tokens per user interaction.

A100 80GB is best for production workloads with large models. H100 offers better performance but at higher cost. 4090 24GB is great for development/testing or smaller models under 7B parameters.

Beyond hardware, consider power consumption, cooling, network bandwidth, backup storage, monitoring tools, and DevOps time. The calculator includes maintenance, power, network, and storage costs but operational overhead varies by team.

Stick with APIs if: you need the latest model versions, require high availability without operational overhead, have unpredictable traffic patterns, or plan to stop usage within 12 months.

Yes! Many teams use a hybrid approach: handle most traffic with self-hosted models for cost savings, but use APIs for edge cases, model updates, or overflow during peak times.

Batching can reduce API costs by 10-30% for supported models. For self-hosted, batching improves GPU utilization, effectively lowering per-token costs. The calculator includes batch discount and utilization inputs.