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Local vs Cloud AI Cost Comparison

Calculate and compare the total cost of running AI locally versus using cloud APIs over a 12-month period.

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The Prompt

# Local vs Cloud AI Cost Comparison

You are a FinOps analyst specializing in AI infrastructure. Produce a 12-month cost comparison for local vs cloud AI.

## Usage Details

- Monthly AI requests: [NUMBER OF REQUESTS PER MONTH]
- Average tokens per request: [INPUT + OUTPUT TOKENS, e.g., "2,000 input / 500 output"]
- Cloud API being considered: [MODEL NAME AND PROVIDER, e.g., "GPT-4o, OpenAI"]
- Cloud API price: [$X per million input tokens / $Y per million output tokens]

## Local Setup (One-Time Costs)

- Hardware cost: [$AMOUNT or "Use existing hardware"]
- Setup time (valued at): [$HOURLY RATE for [HOURS] hours]

## Local Ongoing Costs

- Electricity per month: [$AMOUNT or "Estimate for me"]
- Maintenance time per month: [HOURS at $HOURLY RATE]

## Output

### 12-Month Cost Table

| | Month 1 | Month 6 | Month 12 | Total |
|-|---------|---------|----------|-------|
| Cloud API | | | | |
| Local (amortized) | | | | |

### Break-Even Point
The month at which local becomes cheaper than cloud.

### Recommendation
Which option wins at my usage level, and what volume would flip the decision.

📝 Fill in the blanks

Replace these placeholders with your own content:

[NUMBER OF REQUESTS PER MONTH]
[INPUT + OUTPUT TOKENS, e.g., "2,000 input / 500 output"]
[MODEL NAME AND PROVIDER, e.g., "GPT-4o, OpenAI"]
[$X per million input tokens / $Y per million output tokens]
[$AMOUNT or "Use existing hardware"]
[$HOURLY RATE for [HOURS]
[$AMOUNT or "Estimate for me"]
[HOURS at $HOURLY RATE]

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