Self-Hosting Break-Even Calculator

What the Self-Hosting Break-Even Calculator — Free Online Tool does

The Self-Hosting Break-Even Calculator compares the monthly cost of calling an API with running your own GPUs. Inputs cover monthly API token volume, API cost per million tokens, GPU hourly cost, GPU count and hosting overhead; it returns monthly API cost, monthly self-hosting cost and the difference between them. It is aimed at engineering and finance teams deciding whether dedicated hardware makes sense. The estimate excludes utilisation, operations labour and hardware depreciation.

How to use it

1. Open the Self-Hosting Break-Even Calculator.
2. Enter your monthly token volume.
3. Enter the API cost per million tokens.
4. Enter the GPU hourly cost and how many GPUs you need.
5. Add monthly hosting overhead, compare the totals, then rerun at lower utilisation.

FAQ

What costs are excluded?

Operations labour, hardware depreciation, networking, support contracts and idle capacity. The calculator compares token spend with GPU rental plus hosting overhead only, so treat the result as directional.

Why does utilisation matter?

Rented GPUs bill per hour even when idle. If your workload is spiky, the effective cost per token rises sharply, which usually favours API pricing for the peaks.

What if self-hosting wins on paper?

Confirm the operational burden before switching: model updates, monitoring, scaling and failover all carry cost. A hybrid setup that keeps APIs for overflow is often the practical middle ground.

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Canonical pricing and plans: plugsky.com/#sec-pricing · Terms · SLA · Docs

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