Rent → Own · Budget → Butter

Rent

Pay as you go

Hybrid

Mix & match

Own

Buy the box

Butter

All-inclusive

$0.09–$2.27

Per hour

$65–$1,635

Per month (24/7)

Upfront

∞

Model size

What you get

Access to any GPU — RTX 3060 to B200
No upfront, no commitment, cancel anytime
Best for variable workloads & experimentation
Try before you buy — test models before committing

Tradeoffs

Highest long-term cost — renting 24/7 for a year costs more than buying
No equity — you own nothing at the end
Provider dependency — prices change, GPUs get delisted
Data leaves your premises

☁️

OYASS Fit: Onboarding & Trial

OYASS customers start here. We build the worker, you run it on rented GPUs to validate the workflow. Zero hardware commitment — just the $3k–$10k build fee + pass-through compute.

$700

Upfront (3090)

$30–$100

Monthly rental

$0.09

Per hr (owned)

27B Q4

Local models

What you get

Own a used RTX 3090 ($700) for daily 27B-class inference
Rent H100s on Vast.ai for 70B+ models when needed
Best of both worlds — low base cost + burst capacity
Your 3090 pays for itself in 2–4 months vs. renting

Tradeoffs

Two cost centers to manage (owned + rental)
3090 is 350W — not silent, not cool
24GB VRAM wall — anything >32B at Q4 needs rental
You manage the local box (drivers, updates, cooling)

⚖️

OYASS Fit: Active Production

Your OYASS worker runs daily on your owned 3090 — $0.09/hr effective cost. Burst to rented H100s for larger models. The OYASS upkeep ($500–$1.5k/mo) covers tuning both paths.

$700–$4,200

Upfront

$0.02–$0.09

Per hr (amortized)

$12–$50

Electricity / mo

70B Q3

Max local model

What you get

Own the hardware — it's yours, it doesn't disappear
Lowest per-hour cost after break-even (2–4 months)
Full control — no provider dependency, no API changes
Data stays on your hardware, full stop

Tradeoffs

Upfront cost — $700–$4,200+ depending on build
You manage it — drivers, updates, cooling, power
VRAM is fixed — can't burst to a bigger GPU
Hardware depreciates

🏗️

OYASS Fit: Full Ownership

Your OYASS worker runs on hardware you own. No monthly compute bill — just the one-time build ($3k–$10k) + optional upkeep. The 🫏 runs where you run it. If OYASS vanished tomorrow, your worker keeps working.

$7,500+

Upfront

$0.01–$0.04

Per hr (amortized)

192GB

Unified memory

Anything

Model size

What you get

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 192GB — runs any model that fits
30W TDP — near-silent, runs 24/7 in your office
No GPU lottery — unified memory, no VRAM fragmentation
70B Q4, 120B Q3, even 200B+ at low quant — all fit

Tradeoffs

Highest upfront cost — $7,500+ for the max config
Mac Studio can't use CUDA — limited to MLX / Metal / llama.cpp
No upgrade path — what you buy is what you have
Overkill if you only run 8B–27B models

🧈

OYASS Fit: The Ultimate 🫏

Your OYASS worker runs on the most capable consumer hardware available. No compromises — any model, any time, silently. The $7,500 upfront replaces $200+/mo in API subscriptions. After 3 years, you've saved $7,200 and own the hardware.

Budget → Butter · Pick your tier

Budget~$300

Sweet Spot~$700

Serious~$1,500

Premium~$4,200

🧈 Butter$7,500+

Budget

~$300

Tesla P40 24GB + DIY

Runs 8B–13B · ~15 tok/s

Entry

Sweet Spot

~$700

Used RTX 3090 24GB

Runs 27B Q4, 70B Q3 · 30–50 tok/s

Default

Serious

~$1,500

New build + used 3090

Same + reliability

Build

Premium

~$4,200

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB

Runs 70B Q4 · silent · 30W

Silent

🧈 Butter

$7,500+

Mac Studio 192GB / multi-GPU

Runs anything that fits

All-in

12-Month Cost Comparison

Rent

$2,628

Hybrid

$1,260

Own

$844

Butter

$1,524

Rent (24/7 on Salad 3090)

Hybrid (own 3090 + occasional rental)

Own (3090 + electricity)

Butter (Mac Studio amortized)

Break-Even Analysis · When does owning beat renting?

RTX 3090 ($700) vs. renting

2–4 months

At $0.20–$0.30/hr rental

Mac Studio ($4,200) vs. renting

8–14 months

At $0.50–$0.90/hr H100

Butter ($7,500) vs. API subs

~3 years

Replaces $200+/mo in API costs

OYASS build ($5k avg)

Day one

You own the worker forever

GPU Pricing Comparison — full per-hour pricing across 4 providers
Local AI GPU Pulse — 30-day community signal
The Final Local-AI Box — hardware configurator
Open-Model Transparency Matrix — which models can you actually own?

Rent → Own · Budget → Butter

What you get

Tradeoffs

OYASS Fit: Onboarding & Trial

What you get

Tradeoffs

OYASS Fit: Active Production

What you get

Tradeoffs

OYASS Fit: Full Ownership

What you get

Tradeoffs

OYASS Fit: The Ultimate 🫏

Budget → Butter · Pick your tier

12-Month Cost Comparison

Break-Even Analysis · When does owning beat renting?

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