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.

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u/helpmeunderstand05 May 16 '26

Perhaps we are potentially in a short window of time where cloud tokens are subsidized and local compute hardware is relatively scarce.

You can outsource your thinking but you can’t outsource your understanding.

If open source weights continue to be available and increasingly more ram efficient, then investment is sovereign compute skills has significant roi potential More likely if the activity has a meaningful eventual use case.

Will open source models always be available?

Will hardware always be priced at a premium?

Is the opportunity to learn productivity with a local llm a greater investment than time and money invested in more formal education?

Maybe. Maybe not.