Buy vs rent vs API
Cash comparison over your horizon. Electricity defaults are editable ESTIMATES anchored to public tariff publications — replace with your invoice rate.
Rent cloud GPU
$1056
Buy / self-host
$30141
Managed API
$9600
Lowest cash under these inputs: Rent cloud GPU
- Horizon: 12 months × 200 GPU-hours/month.
- Cloud cash outlay ≈ $1056 (no CapEx).
- On-prem ≈ CapEx $30000 + electricity $141 (utilization 70%).
- API path uses your monthly API budget input ($800/mo) — replace with invoice data when available.
- Electricity default is an editable ESTIMATE; set your local tariff.
- Ignores colo, networking, staff, and scrap value — add those before a real purchase.
- Cash breakeven (cloud opex vs buy+power): ~393.5 months under these inputs.
If renting wins (or you want optionality)
Cheapest seeded offers right now — verify live prices via sources.
- RunPod · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 · $0.44/hr Rent on RunPod
- Vultr · NVIDIA L40S · $1.50/hr Rent on Vultr
- DigitalOcean · NVIDIA L40S · $1.57/hr Rent on DigitalOcean