Engineering-Grade
LLM Tokenomics & Cloud GPU
Break-Even Platform
Accurately forecast million-token API expenses across 36+ frontier models, calculate exact KV-cache VRAM sizing, and determine the exact break-even point for self-hosting on cloud GPUs.
Instant H100, H200 & RTX 4090 On-Demand Instances
Deploy vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, and Ollama in seconds with zero configuration. Global secure clusters with sub-$0.45/hr consumer options.
Four Analytical Engines for AI Teams
Built for software architects and CTOs transitioning from toy prototypes to multi-million token daily enterprise throughput.
API Cost Simulator
Model prompt caching discounts (up to 90%), batch processing rebates (50%), and token splits across all major vendors.
Model Economics Arena
Compare 36 frontier models side-by-side on context size, token generation velocity, and price-per-intelligence metrics.
vLLM VRAM Sizer
Compute exact VRAM needed for weights (FP16, FP8, INT4) + concurrent KV Cache context memory + CUDA runtime buffers.
API vs GPU Break-Even
Discover the exact daily token crossover volume where renting dedicated cloud GPUs becomes cheaper than paying API vendors.
Master LLM Cost & Tokenomics Calculator
Tune request volumes, input/output payload distributions, prompt caching hit rates, batch discounts, and reasoning token multipliers in real time.
Select Production Workload Preset
Traffic & Token Volume Parameters
Adjust request rates and input/output payload distributions.
Hidden Multipliers & Discount Levers
Real enterprise bills depend on caching, batching, and reasoning.
Applies provider cached token rates (e.g., Anthropic 90% off, OpenAI 50% off, DeepSeek 90% off).
Models like o1, o3-mini, and DeepSeek R1 consume hidden internal "thinking" output tokens billed at standard output rates.
Live Model Cost Leaderboard & Projections
36 of 36 ModelsInstant breakdown dynamically calculated with caching discounts & batch execution.
| Model & Architecture | Context | Cost / 1k Reqs | Daily Cost | Monthly Cost (USD) | Relative Cost Bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MI Mistral NeMo 12BCheapest Mistral•Open Weights•~140 t/s | 128k | $0.03 | $0.087 | $2.61 -$0.8 cached | 3%vs max |
ME Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~170 t/s | 128k | $0.07 | $0.17 | $5.25 -$1.3 cached | 3%vs max |
MI Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 Mistral•Open Weights•~180 t/s | 32k | $0.07 | $0.18 | $5.35 -$1.6 cached | 3%vs max |
ME Llama 3.2 1B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~280 t/s | 128k | $0.09 | $0.23 | $6.98 -$0.7 cached | 3%vs max |
QW Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct Qwen•Open Weights•~190 t/s | 128k | $0.15 | $0.39 | $11.55 -$2.7 cached | 3%vs max |
GO Gemini 1.5 Flash Google•API•~140 t/s | 1,000k | $0.15 | $0.39 | $11.59 -$3.0 cached | 3%vs max |
ME Llama 3.2 3B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~220 t/s | 128k | $0.16 | $0.39 | $11.81 -$1.4 cached | 3%vs max |
DE DeepSeek Coder V2 DeepSeek•Open Weights•~70 t/s | 128k | $0.18 | $0.44 | $13.15 -$6.8 cached | 3%vs max |
ME Llama 3.3 70B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~90 t/s | 128k | $0.20 | $0.49 | $14.70 -$2.7 cached | 3%vs max |
GO Gemini 2.0 Flash Google•API•~150 t/s | 1,000k | $0.21 | $0.52 | $15.45 -$4.0 cached | 3%vs max |
OP GPT-4o mini OpenAI•API•~135 t/s | 128k | $0.34 | $0.84 | $25.20 -$4.1 cached | 3%vs max |
QW Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct Qwen•Open Weights•~85 t/s | 128k | $0.44 | $1.11 | $33.18 -$9.7 cached | 3%vs max |
ME Llama 3.1 70B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~85 t/s | 128k | $0.48 | $1.19 | $35.70 -$10.8 cached | 3%vs max |
DE DeepSeek V3 DeepSeek•Open Weights•~60 t/s | 64k | $0.49 | $1.22 | $36.61 -$15.6 cached | 3%vs max |
MI Codestral 25.01 Mistral•Open Weights•~110 t/s | 256k | $0.57 | $1.42 | $42.53 -$8.1 cached | 3%vs max |
QW QwQ 32B (Reasoning)Reasoning Qwen•Open Weights•~60 t/s | 128k | $0.76 | $1.89 | $56.70 -$10.8 cached | 3%vs max |
QW Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B Instruct Qwen•Open Weights•~115 t/s | 128k | $0.90 | $2.26 | $67.83 -$17.8 cached | 3%vs max |
GO Gemini 2.5 Flash Google•API•~160 t/s | 1,000k | $1.07 | $2.68 | $80.48 -$12.2 cached | 3%vs max |
DE DeepSeek R1Reasoning DeepSeek•Open Weights•~38 t/s | 64k | $1.34 | $3.35 | $100.45 -$28.2 cached | 4%vs max |
ME Llama 3.1 405B Instruct Meta Llama•Open Weights•~35 t/s | 128k | $1.79 | $4.46 | $133.88 -$40.5 cached | 5%vs max |
AN Claude 3.5 Haiku Anthropic•API•~130 t/s | 200k | $1.84 | $4.60 | $138.12 -$38.9 cached | 5%vs max |
OP OpenAI o1-miniReasoning OpenAI•API•~65 t/s | 128k | $2.46 | $6.16 | $184.80 -$29.7 cached | 7%vs max |
OP OpenAI o3-miniReasoning OpenAI•API•~78 t/s | 200k | $2.46 | $6.16 | $184.80 -$29.7 cached | 7%vs max |
MI Mistral Large 2 (2407) Mistral•Open Weights•~75 t/s | 128k | $3.78 | $9.45 | $283.50 -$54.0 cached | 11%vs max |
MI Pixtral Large 124B Mistral•Open Weights•~68 t/s | 128k | $3.78 | $9.45 | $283.50 -$54.0 cached | 11%vs max |
GO Gemini 2.5 ProReasoning Google•API•~90 t/s | 2,000k | $4.33 | $10.81 | $324.38 -$50.6 cached | 13%vs max |
XA Grok 2 xAI•API•~90 t/s | 128k | $5.18 | $12.95 | $388.50 -$54.0 cached | 15%vs max |
XA Grok 2 Vision xAI•API•~85 t/s | 32k | $5.18 | $12.95 | $388.50 -$54.0 cached | 15%vs max |
OP GPT-4o OpenAI•API•~105 t/s | 128k | $5.60 | $14.00 | $420.00 -$67.5 cached | 16%vs max |
GO Gemini 1.5 Pro Google•API•~60 t/s | 2,000k | $5.98 | $14.96 | $448.88 -$141.8 cached | 17%vs max |
AN Claude 3.7 SonnetReasoning Anthropic•API•~82 t/s | 200k | $6.91 | $17.27 | $517.95 -$145.8 cached | 20%vs max |
AN Claude 3.5 Sonnet Anthropic•API•~80 t/s | 200k | $6.91 | $17.27 | $517.95 -$145.8 cached | 20%vs max |
XA Grok Beta xAI•API•~75 t/s | 128k | $9.45 | $23.63 | $708.75 -$135.0 cached | 27%vs max |
OP GPT-4 Turbo OpenAI•API•~45 t/s | 128k | $18.90 | $47.25 | $1,417.50 -$270.0 cached | 55%vs max |
OP OpenAI o1Reasoning OpenAI•API•~35 t/s | 200k | $33.60 | $84.00 | $2,520.00 -$405.0 cached | 97%vs max |
AN Claude 3 Opus Anthropic•API•~32 t/s | 200k | $34.53 | $86.32 | $2,589.75 -$729.0 cached | 100%vs max |
Frontier & Open-Weights Pricing Matrix
| Model & Provider | Architecture | Context Window | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cached / 1M | Speed (tok/s) | Primary Use Cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OP GPT-4o OpenAI | Proprietary | 128k | $2.50 | $10.00 | $1.25 | ~105 t/s | General KnowledgeVision & Multimodal |
OP GPT-4o mini OpenAI | Proprietary | 128k | $0.15 | $0.60 | $0.075 | ~135 t/s | High-Volume ClassificationCustomer Support Chat |
OP OpenAI o1Reasoning OpenAI | Proprietary | 200k | $15.00 | $60.00 | $7.50 | ~35 t/s | Complex MathematicsAdvanced Code Refactoring |
OP OpenAI o1-miniReasoning OpenAI | Proprietary | 128k | $1.10 | $4.40 | $0.55 | ~65 t/s | Fast Code GenerationSTEM Tutoring |
OP OpenAI o3-miniReasoning OpenAI | Proprietary | 200k | $1.10 | $4.40 | $0.55 | ~78 t/s | Autonomous Coding AgentsComplex Logic Synthesis |
OP GPT-4 Turbo OpenAI | Proprietary | 128k | $10.00 | $30.00 | $5.00 | ~45 t/s | Legacy Enterprise PipelinesLong Context Extraction |
AN Claude 3.7 SonnetReasoning Anthropic | Proprietary | 200k | $3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | ~82 t/s | Hybrid ReasoningFull-Stack Coding |
AN Claude 3.5 Sonnet Anthropic | Proprietary | 200k | $3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | ~80 t/s | Coding & EngineeringVisual Chart Analysis |
AN Claude 3.5 Haiku Anthropic | Proprietary | 200k | $0.80 | $4.00 | $0.080 | ~130 t/s | Ultra-Fast Customer SupportCode Completion |
AN Claude 3 Opus Anthropic | Proprietary | 200k | $15.00 | $75.00 | $1.50 | ~32 t/s | Deep Philosophical AnalysisHigh-Stakes Legal Review |
GO Gemini 2.5 ProReasoning Google | Proprietary | 2,000k | $1.25 | $10.00 | $0.31 | ~90 t/s | 2 Million Context AnalysisMulti-hour Audio/Video |
GO Gemini 2.5 Flash Google | Proprietary | 1,000k | $0.30 | $2.50 | $0.075 | ~160 t/s | Real-time Multimodal StreamingHigh-Throughput Summarization |
GO Gemini 2.0 Flash Google | Proprietary | 1,000k | $0.10 | $0.40 | $0.025 | ~150 t/s | Real-time Audio/Video IngestionHigh-Volume Automation |
GO Gemini 1.5 Pro Google | Proprietary | 2,000k | $3.50 | $10.50 | $0.88 | ~60 t/s | Massive Audio IngestionEnterprise Repository Understanding |
GO Gemini 1.5 Flash Google | Proprietary | 1,000k | $0.075 | $0.30 | $0.019 | ~140 t/s | High-scale Web Scraping CleanersReal-Time Chat |
DE DeepSeek V3 DeepSeek | 671B Open | 64k | $0.32 | $0.89 | $0.032 | ~60 t/s | General KnowledgeOpen Source Self-Hosting |
DE DeepSeek R1Reasoning DeepSeek | 671B Open | 64k | $0.70 | $2.50 | $0.18 | ~38 t/s | Advanced MathematicsCompetitive Coding |
DE DeepSeek Coder V2 DeepSeek | 236B Open | 128k | $0.14 | $0.28 | $0.014 | ~70 t/s | Multi-language Software EngineeringRepo Refactoring |
ME Llama 3.3 70B Instruct Meta Llama | 70B Open | 128k | $0.10 | $0.32 | $0.050 | ~90 t/s | Self-hosted Enterprise AppsAgentic Pipelines |
ME Llama 3.1 405B Instruct Meta Llama | 405B Open | 128k | $1.50 | $1.50 | $0.75 | ~35 t/s | Synthetic Data GenerationModel Distillation |
ME Llama 3.1 70B Instruct Meta Llama | 70B Open | 128k | $0.40 | $0.40 | $0.20 | ~85 t/s | General Purpose AssistantCustomer Support |
ME Llama 3.1 8B Instruct Meta Llama | 8B Open | 128k | $0.050 | $0.080 | $0.025 | ~170 t/s | Local Inference on Single GPUEdge Devices |
ME Llama 3.2 3B Instruct Meta Llama | 3B Open | 128k | $0.050 | $0.33 | $0.025 | ~220 t/s | Mobile DevicesOn-Device Assistant |
ME Llama 3.2 1B Instruct Meta Llama | 1B Open | 128k | $0.027 | $0.20 | $0.013 | ~280 t/s | Ultra-Low Latency RoutingOn-Device Text Correction |
MI Mistral Large 2 (2407) Mistral | 123B Open | 128k | $2.00 | $6.00 | $1.00 | ~75 t/s | Multilingual Enterprise SystemsCode Generation |
MI Mistral NeMo 12B Mistral | 12B Open | 128k | $0.029 | $0.030 | $0.015 | ~140 t/s | Single-GPU DeploymentsMultilingual Chat |
MI Codestral 25.01 Mistral | 22B Open | 256k | $0.30 | $0.90 | $0.15 | ~110 t/s | Fill-in-the-Middle (FIM)IDE Extensions |
MI Pixtral Large 124B Mistral | 124B Open | 128k | $2.00 | $6.00 | $1.00 | ~68 t/s | Document ParsingDiagram Understanding |
MI Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 Mistral | 7B Open | 32k | $0.060 | $0.060 | $0.030 | ~180 t/s | Local Lightweight AgentsFunction Calling |
QW Qwen 2.5 72B Instruct Qwen | 72B Open | 128k | $0.36 | $0.40 | $0.18 | ~85 t/s | High-Tier Open Weights ReasoningBilingual Chinese/English |
QW Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B Instruct Qwen | 32B Open | 128k | $0.66 | $1.00 | $0.33 | ~115 t/s | Autonomous Coding AgentsSWE-bench Tasks |
QW Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct Qwen | 7B Open | 128k | $0.10 | $0.20 | $0.050 | ~190 t/s | Consumer GPU InferenceEdge Devices |
QW QwQ 32B (Reasoning)Reasoning Qwen | 32B Open | 128k | $0.40 | $1.20 | $0.20 | ~60 t/s | Self-Reflective ThinkingDeep Mathematical Olympiad Problems |
XA Grok 2 xAI | Proprietary | 128k | $2.00 | $10.00 | $1.00 | ~90 t/s | Real-time InformationCoding |
XA Grok 2 Vision xAI | Proprietary | 32k | $2.00 | $10.00 | $1.00 | ~85 t/s | Document & Diagram AnalysisVisual QA |
XA Grok Beta xAI | Proprietary | 128k | $5.00 | $15.00 | $2.50 | ~75 t/s | Direct X Platform AnalysisCurrent Events |
Accelerators, VRAM & Cloud Hourly Rates
API vs. Dedicated Cloud GPU Decision Engine
Compare proprietary API billing against running vLLM on dedicated hourly cloud GPUs.
Cost Trajectory Crossover Plot
Horizontal line: Fixed monthly GPU cost. Sloped line: Linear API usage cost.
At your simulated volume of 150M tokens/mo:
At current traffic, paying per token is cheaper. You will save money by sticking with the GPT-4o API until you cross 400M tokens/month.
Full Cloud GPU Hardware Catalog (19 Accelerators)
Direct specifications, memory bandwidth, and spot rental rates.
NVIDIA B200 192GB
Blackwell enterprise powerhouse delivering 2.5x the inference throughput of H100 with massive 192GB HBM3e.
NVIDIA H200 141GB SXM5
Equipped with 141GB HBM3e at 4.8 TB/s bandwidth, ideal for high-throughput serving of 70B+ LLMs without pipeline parallelism.
NVIDIA H100 80GB SXM5
The world benchmark for AI training and low-latency FP8 inference with Transformer Engine.
NVIDIA H100 80GB PCIe
PCIe form factor H100 offering high density deployment in standard server racks with 350W TDP.
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4
Proven workhorse for fine-tuning and inference with NVLink interconnect and 2 TB/s bandwidth.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe
High memory capacity PCIe card for reliable batch inference and medium-scale multi-GPU clusters.
NVIDIA A100 40GB PCIe
Cost-effective enterprise GPU for smaller LLMs (8B, 14B) and heavy embedding generation pipelines.
NVIDIA L40S 48GB
Ada Lovelace architecture powerhouse optimized for multimodal AI, graphics rendering, and 70B quantization serving.
NVIDIA L4 24GB
Low-power 72W single-slot server accelerator for video AI pipelines and lightweight model inference.
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB
Premier professional workstation GPU with 48GB ECC VRAM, suited for local enterprise fine-tuning and 70B inference.
NVIDIA RTX A6000 48GB
Ampere generation 48GB workstation GPU offering incredible cloud rental price-to-VRAM value.
NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB
Next-gen consumer flagship with 32GB GDDR7 and nearly 1.8 TB/s bandwidth for blazing-fast local open weights.
NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB
The golden standard for AI hackers and developers. Over 1 TB/s memory bandwidth for sub-$0.50/hr cloud rentals.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16GB
Sub-$1000 GPU capable of running quantized 8B and 14B models locally with high token generation speeds.
NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB
The budget community king: 24GB VRAM with NVLink support available at under $0.25/hr in community clouds.
AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB
Massive 192GB HBM3 memory pool with 5.3 TB/s bandwidth, running Llama 3 405B on a single node via ROCm/vLLM.
Apple Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB
Unified memory architecture allowing up to 120GB allocation to LLMs locally with whisper-quiet 140W power draw.
Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra 192GB
Massive 192GB unified RAM desktop powerhouse capable of running 70B models at full FP16 or quantized 405B models locally.
Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Ultimate portable workstation running 70B parameter models entirely offline on battery.
Open-Source LLM VRAM & Multi-GPU Sizer
Calculates weights memory, dynamic KV context expansion, and CUDA kernel runtime overhead.
Total VRAM Required: 50.5 GB
GPU Hardware Compatibility & Speed Matrix
Live hardware matching: Showing setups capable of serving this 70B model at 50.5 GB total VRAM.
NVIDIA B200 192GB
Blackwell enterprise powerhouse delivering 2.5x the inference throughput of H100 with massive 192GB HBM3e.
NVIDIA H200 141GB SXM5
Equipped with 141GB HBM3e at 4.8 TB/s bandwidth, ideal for high-throughput serving of 70B+ LLMs without pipeline parallelism.
NVIDIA H100 80GB SXM5
The world benchmark for AI training and low-latency FP8 inference with Transformer Engine.
NVIDIA H100 80GB PCIe
PCIe form factor H100 offering high density deployment in standard server racks with 350W TDP.
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4
Proven workhorse for fine-tuning and inference with NVLink interconnect and 2 TB/s bandwidth.
NVIDIA A100 80GB PCIe
High memory capacity PCIe card for reliable batch inference and medium-scale multi-GPU clusters.
2x NVIDIA A100 40GB PCIe
Cost-effective enterprise GPU for smaller LLMs (8B, 14B) and heavy embedding generation pipelines.
2x NVIDIA L40S 48GB
Ada Lovelace architecture powerhouse optimized for multimodal AI, graphics rendering, and 70B quantization serving.
4x NVIDIA L4 24GB
Low-power 72W single-slot server accelerator for video AI pipelines and lightweight model inference.
2x NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada 48GB
Premier professional workstation GPU with 48GB ECC VRAM, suited for local enterprise fine-tuning and 70B inference.
2x NVIDIA RTX A6000 48GB
Ampere generation 48GB workstation GPU offering incredible cloud rental price-to-VRAM value.
2x NVIDIA RTX 5090 32GB
Next-gen consumer flagship with 32GB GDDR7 and nearly 1.8 TB/s bandwidth for blazing-fast local open weights.
4x NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB
The golden standard for AI hackers and developers. Over 1 TB/s memory bandwidth for sub-$0.50/hr cloud rentals.
4x NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16GB
Sub-$1000 GPU capable of running quantized 8B and 14B models locally with high token generation speeds.
4x NVIDIA RTX 3090 24GB
The budget community king: 24GB VRAM with NVLink support available at under $0.25/hr in community clouds.
AMD Instinct MI300X 192GB
Massive 192GB HBM3 memory pool with 5.3 TB/s bandwidth, running Llama 3 405B on a single node via ROCm/vLLM.
Apple Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB
Unified memory architecture allowing up to 120GB allocation to LLMs locally with whisper-quiet 140W power draw.
Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra 192GB
Massive 192GB unified RAM desktop powerhouse capable of running 70B models at full FP16 or quantized 405B models locally.
Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB
Ultimate portable workstation running 70B parameter models entirely offline on battery.
How VRAM Sizing & KV-Cache Actually Scales
When serving open-weights LLMs in production (via vLLM, SGLang, or TGI), model weights are only a fraction of memory consumption. Long context windows and multi-batch serving require massive key-value (KV) cache reserves.
VRAM_Total = (Model_Params × Bytes_Per_Weight) + KV_Cache + CUDA_Overhead (1.5GB)Continuous Real-Time Token Economics
Compare 36+ frontier models, calculate exact KV-cache memory footprints, and discover whether self-hosting open weights on cloud GPUs beats proprietary APIs.