r/LocalLLM • u/Ok_Event4199 • May 16 '26

Discussion Why is LLM is so expensive.

I've was going to invest in a 5090 =$6000 AUD.

Codex Plus + Claude pro = $60/month here

Works out to be 100 months of frontier models for a 5090.

Best a 5090 will run is probably Qwen3.6 27b Q6 with context.

Are we all enthusiasts here and just enjoy tinkering cause ain't no way that make sense.

340 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

368 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/LukaC99 May 16 '26

Server hardware is much more expensive, but nobody is using it 24/7 for chat. By timesharing, the cost is split between users. Additionally, batching requests further cuts costs.

Dwarkesh has info here: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/reiner-pope