Self-Hosted vs API Break-Even Calculator

Compare your monthly API bill against renting GPUs, and find the volume where self-hosting starts to pay off.

Running your own model looks cheaper until you price the GPUs by the hour. This self-hosted LLM vs API cost tool puts the two routes side by side: enter your monthly token volume, pick the model for API pricing, and set the GPU rate and count for a self-hosted deployment. It shows the metered API cost, the fixed rental cost, and which is cheaper right now. To answer when is self-hosting cheaper, it also finds the break-even — the monthly token volume where the two meet — so you can see how much your traffic would have to grow before renting hardware wins. Everything runs in your browser against a dated price table.

Read the guide: Self-Hosting vs API — When Is It Cheaper?

Your monthly usage

Model (for API pricing)$2.50/1M input · $10/1M output

API is cheaper

$1,185/mo

cheaper than self-hosting at this volume

API cost / month
$275
Self-host / month
$1,460
Break-even
345M tok/mo
Monthly saving
$1,185

Self-hosting only wins at sustained high volume, because the GPU bill is fixed whether or not you use it. At your current mix the routes cost the same at about 345M tokens a month — below that the API is cheaper, above it the GPUs are.

Prices updated January 2026. The self-host figure is the raw GPU rental rate only — it does not include setup, ops, engineering time, storage, networking or the idle hours a rented GPU still bills for. Real self-hosting costs more than the sticker rate, so treat the break-even as a floor and verify API rates against the provider's pricing page.

How it works

  1. 1

    Enter your monthly token volume

    Put in the input and output tokens you serve in a typical month, and pick the model you'd call through the API. The API cost updates as you type.

  2. 2

    Describe the self-hosted box

    Set the GPU hourly rate and how many GPUs you'd run. Leave it always-on for a 730-hour month, or untick that and enter only the hours the machine actually runs.

  3. 3

    Read the verdict and break-even

    The headline says which route is cheaper and by how much a month. The break-even figure tells you the monthly token volume where the API and the GPUs cost the same, so you know how far your traffic is from the crossover.

Instant & 100% private — nothing is uploaded

Every calculation runs locally in your browser. The prompts, token counts and numbers you enter stay on your own device and are never sent to a server — nothing is stored, logged or shared.

Frequently asked questions

When is self-hosting an LLM cheaper than an API?
Only at sustained high volume. A rented GPU bills the same whether it serves a million tokens or a billion, so the fixed cost only pays off once your metered API bill would have exceeded it. For most teams sending moderate traffic, the pay-as-you-go API stays cheaper, which is why this tool shows the break-even volume rather than a flat yes or no.
What does the break-even token volume mean?
It's the monthly token count, at your current input/output mix, where the API cost equals the GPU rental cost. Below it the API is cheaper; above it the self-hosted GPUs are. Because API cost scales with volume and the GPU bill is fixed, the crossover is a single point you can compare your real traffic against.
Does the self-host figure include everything?
No. It's the raw GPU rental rate only. Real self-hosting adds setup and engineering time, model loading and ops, storage, networking, and the idle hours a reserved GPU still charges for. It also assumes you can keep the hardware busy — a GPU sitting at low utilisation costs the same as a full one. Treat the break-even as an optimistic floor.
Are these prices exact?
The API rates come from a shared table dated on the page, and GPU rates vary widely by provider, region and whether you use spot, on-demand or reserved capacity. Enter your own quoted GPU rate for accuracy, and confirm the model's API pricing on the provider's page before you budget. The tool runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing.

Important

For planning and estimates only. Prices come from a published rate table dated on the page; providers change pricing without notice, and token counts here are approximations. Confirm against the provider’s own pricing before you budget or commit.

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