How much are you paying for AI?
AI tools made everyone 10× more productive and 0× more aware of where the bill went. Pick what you actually pay for. See annual burn. See how much could run locally on a Mac instead.
Chat / general
Code
Search
Design / media
Agents
Monthly $50
Annual $600
Over 3 years $1,800
What if you ran some locally?
3 of your tools have decent open-weight stand-ins. Llama 3, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral all run on an M-series Mac.Saved per month $0
Saved over 3y $0
$800 Mac payback —
A used M2 Mac mini or modest M3 MacBook handles 7B-13B local models (Llama 3 8B, DeepSeek-R1, Qwen 2.5 Coder) comfortably. Clamshell mode keeps it running overnight on a closed lid — useful for batch jobs.
What you spend on AI subs each year could buy
- 2× A nice mechanical keyboard $250 each
- 1× Standing desk $600 each