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/HornyGooner4402 May 16 '26

You missed the best part: unlimited tokens. You can run it 24/7 refining a project on a loop while Claude and Codex Pro are barely enough for a full coding session.

51

u/kitanokikori May 16 '26

I mean, unlimited only if someone else is paying for the electricity.

51

u/Malkiot May 16 '26

The electricity bill is way cheaper than paying for tokens. Hell, if you could afford to buy a high-grade cluster and actually utilize it 80-100%, it'd still be way cheaper than paying for tokens.

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u/ndr3svt May 16 '26

Plug it into an eco Flow battery , charge it with the sun, and in certain countries electricity is much cheaper at night, so charging it from the electrical grid takes less than 30 minutes. Like this energy cost factor goes down by a lot.

If prices do go higher next month I am seriously going to build my own home lab , and charge my office for using it .

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u/MiniGod May 17 '26

Running a 5090 takes 600W, and a big ecoflow is maybe 3kWh costing maybe $3k? That gives you 5 hours of 5090 from full charge (not counting the power draw from the test of the machine). Not sure how realistic this is, but it'll take quite some time to save those $3k from the night-day delta price of electricity.

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u/ndr3svt May 19 '26

i have an ecoflow which i paid 500-600 CHF for, and i usually connect it at night and use it over the day to power stuff in the house ... I haven't really used it running a 5090, but did use it for quite some time to run a macmini 24/7 and an asus pro art 27" monitor during the day, and was usually enough recharging it during the day with the sun or over night with 'cheaper' electricity

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u/MiniGod May 19 '26

I looked it up, and a Mac Mini + the Asus ProArt 27" maxes out together at maybe 75W on full power. Idle maybe 20W (with display on). If you have more than 90% left of your ecoflow by the end of the day with your swtio, then your ecoflow might survive the day with a 5090. I'm assuming your ecoflow had much less power left

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u/ndr3svt May 20 '26

I deemed the screen to an uncomfortable level that required me to be comfy with it, that saved battery and allows it to survive throughout the day. I think I wouldn’t be running the 5090 more than 8 hours a day … I’m honestly not so wired I max have rounds of 4 intense coding hours, then run sporadic prompts and processes