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 and compare, from the cheapest AI subscription to the priciest. See annual burn. See how much could run locally on a Mac instead.
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Monthly $50
Annual $600
Over 3 years $1,800
Ollama vs ChatGPT: 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