Cost worksheet
What would local AI actually cost you?
A transparent worksheet, not a black box: every line item shows its assumption, outputs are ranges, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
MODEL v0.1.0-provisional — these ranges are provisional illustrations; each line item gets a cited, dated source before this worksheet is treated as anything more than a sketch. Judge the method, not yet the numbers.
1–500
| Line item (3-year) | Range (USD) |
|---|---|
| Hardware (one workstation-class machine) A capable desktop with a consumer GPU at the low end; a high-VRAM workstation at the high end. Scales with team size and model tier. [source pending] | $1,500 – $5,000 |
| Setup & configuration Professional installation, model selection, interface setup, and staff walkthrough. DIY is possible at $0 plus your own time. [source pending] | $1,000 – $4,000 |
| Electricity A workstation under mixed load; depends on usage hours and local rates. Enter your local kWh rate for a tighter figure. [source pending] | $240 – $1,050 |
| Updates & maintenance Zero if absorbed by existing IT support; the high end assumes a few hours of external IT time per quarter. [source pending] | $0 – $3,600 |
| Cloud AI subscription equivalent (avoided) Per-user annual cost of business-tier AI subscriptions ($20–60/user/month). Multiplied by your team size in the worksheet. [source pending] | −$3,600 – −$10,800 |
| Local setup total, 3 years | $2,740 – $13,650 |
| Cloud subscriptions you’d avoid | $3,600 – $10,800 |
Read it as a range, not a quote: if the local total sits well below the avoided subscriptions for your team, the economics favour local; if they overlap, the decision rests on data control, not dollars.
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