AI Interactive Tools
LLM TCO Calculator
API, fine-tune or self-host? Compare 3 scenarios with 1/2/3-year total cost of ownership.
TL;DR
One-line answer: 1/2/3-year total cost for API, fine-tune and self-host scenarios.
- Projection from monthly queries and average input/output tokens.
- GPU CapEx, electricity, maintenance and engineer share included for self-host.
- Recommended scenario for your inputs + pros/cons summary.
Definition
- LLM TCO
- The total cost of ownership of an LLM solution, comparing API consumption, fine-tune + hosted, or full self-host across token, infrastructure, staffing and electricity items.
- Also known as: LLM total cost of ownership, LLM TCO, AI cost comparison
Inputs
3 scenarios
API
$11,250/mo
3y · $405,000
Fine-tune + hosted
$3,150/mo
3y · $124,200
Self-host (Llama 3.1)
$2,357/mo
3y · $91,340
Recommended for your case
If you have high volume and data sovereignty needs, self-host wins. Plan CapEx + 1 MLOps engineer.
- API
- + Fastest start
- + Zero ops
- − Cost scales linearly
- − Vendor lock-in
- Fine-tune + hosted
- + Domain quality
- + Lower per-token
- − Re-train every 6 mo
- − Hosted infra cost
- Self-host (Llama 3.1)
- + Data sovereignty
- + Predictable cost
- − Big upfront CapEx
- − MLOps headcount
Calculations rely on Q1 2026 public pricing and standard assumptions; estimates only.
References
- OpenAI API Pricing, OpenAI
- Anthropic Pricing, Anthropic
- Lambda Labs Cloud GPU Pricing, Lambda
- NVIDIA L40S GPU spec sheet, NVIDIA