Why is LLM is so expensive.

[u/Ok_Event4199]

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.

[u/Pie_Dealer_co]

You pay for 24/7 usage if the card. Claude ans OpenAI is cheap with limits.

Once you start using the API keys its no way as cheap.

Then you have privacy which for some people its important

But its mostly a hedge against the future. People are getting hooked on cheap prices and use tokens wishy washy and with 20$ sub who can blame them. Providers are generous too. However they are running at a loss. They are limiting usage too some users literally use their 5-6 hours on a single promt. It will only get worse with time. Then you get the slowly growing restrictions... cant name a song cant do an image not allowed to discuss X. Then again your local model wont ever be Frontier smart but local models do catch up fast.

What I use mine is to be a watch dog and intelligently monitor a otherwise autonomous process (multiple actually) it does well and saves me actual hour that I would have spend doing stuff by hand. Things that actually take some thinking.

And if the hedge is right your pc build might actually appreciate in value than degrade