2026-03-15 · William Kennedy

The Real Cost of Running AI Infrastructure

Cloud AI costs add up fast. Here's a realistic breakdown of what it costs to run AI locally vs in the cloud.

Cloud API Costs

At current pricing, processing 1 million tokens costs roughly:

GPT-4o: $5-15 depending on input/output ratio
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: $3-15
GPT-4 Turbo: $10-30

A business processing 10M tokens/month is looking at $50-300/month in API costs alone.

Local Infrastructure Costs

A capable local setup:

RTX 4090 workstation: $3,000-4,000 one-time
Electricity: ~$30-50/month running 24/7
Maintenance: Minimal if set up correctly

Break-even typically happens within 6-12 months for businesses with moderate AI usage.

The Hidden Costs

What most people miss: the cost of expertise. Setting up and maintaining AI infrastructure requires knowledge most businesses don't have in-house. That's where we come in — a one-time deployment cost that gives you years of value.