RUNLOCALAIv38
→WILL IT RUNBEST GPUCOMPARETROUBLESHOOTSTARTPULSEMODELSHARDWARETOOLSBENCH
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RUNLOCALAI · v38
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>Compounder

One slider. Two lines on a chart. The crossover point. Drag “tokens per day” up and watch the cloud cost line and the local cost line extend across your horizon. Where they cross is when local pays back — concrete, sharable, one screen.

The math is the same as /cost-vs-cloud; the difference is the time dimension. You see not just what you'd pay this month but when the cumulative gap matters.

§ Reading the chart
Cloud cost is a straight line — pay-per-use accumulates linearly. Local cost starts at the upfront hardware price (a step at month 0) then accumulates only electricity. The crossover happens when the two lines meet. Below break-even volumes cloud stays cheaper indefinitely; above break-even local pulls ahead. Neither answer is wrong — they're different shapes for different volumes.

Configure the scenario

Pick a cloud provider, a local rig, and the volume slider. URL updates as you change — share by copying.

500,000 tok/day
10K
20M
§ Cumulative cost over time
cloud burns linearly · local front-loads + amortizes
$0$603$1,205$1,808$2,41103mo6mo9mo12mo15mo18mo21mo24mobreak-evenClaude Sonnet 4.5Local rig
Cloud / day: $3.300
Local / day: $0.000
Upfront: $0
Break-even: mo 0
Cloud (per day)
$3.3
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Local (per day)
$0
pick rig
Upfront
$0
hardware only
Break-even
immediate
local beats cloud
§ Verdict at 500,000 tokens/day

Pick a local hardware + model to see the crossover analysis.

Where to go from here

Cost vs Cloud →

Per-prompt cost math. Paste an actual sample, see the provider matrix instead of the time-axis chart.

TCO calculator →

Tune assumptions: utilization, electricity rate, cloud equivalent rate, amortization horizon — the inputs feeding this chart.

Stack Builder →

Crossover looks favorable? Build the actual rig — GPU + runtime + models + install script.

CC Decoder →

Want the volume number to be real? Paste a Claude Code transcript; the decoder tells you the actual tokens/day you're running.