Self-Host vs API Breakeven
Calculate the breakeven point between GPU rental/ownership and API calls
API Cost Parameters
Self-Host Cost Parameters
80G VRAM · estimated throughput 200 tok/s (scaled by target utilization)
Breakeven Analysis
Monthly API cost
$437.50
Blended price ($/1M tokens): $4.375
Monthly self-host cost
$1,817.70
GPUs required: 1 × H100 80G
Breakeven volume (tokens/month)
415.5M
Required avg. throughput: 38.1 tok/s · Effective utilization: 19.0%
Use the API: at current volume it is about 76% cheaper.
Self-hosting becomes cheaper once usage exceeds ~415.5M tokens/month.
Notes: self-host cost covers GPU rental only (730 h/month × count) and excludes power, ops and redundancy; throughput is an estimate that depends on model size, quantization and inference engine. Preset prices are 2026 market references — edit them freely.