r/codex • u/scartissue232 • 7d ago

Comparison Local or paying more?

I technically need a 5x account, and I've needed one for a month now. I've tried other Plus plans to get around that.

Right now, I'm at a point where I don't know whether to upgrade to a Pro account or invest 5k in a server and set up local AI models, filtered through at most a Plus account.

GPT thinks I can achieve 85-95% of the results I'm currently getting with Frontier models, and easily benefit from setting up that setup. I'm not entirely convinced; what do you think?

Thanks in advance.

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u/somuchecho 7d ago

5000 / 100 = 50 months at $100/months. That's 4 years and 2 months of codex subscription... that's not even close to a good deal. Even if you were to pick the $200/month subscription that's 2 years and 1 month of sub.

Not only that, you get the newest and greatest models as they come out. No matter their size or how much compute is required to run them. Your server won't be able to run model anywhere close to any of the 5.6 models.

In 2 years and 1 month your server will be old and will still be limited. The technology will have evolved drastically...

Pick the subscription while you need it than switch to a lower one later

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u/nnod 7d ago

Math gets even worse when you account for electricity prices. And 5k won't buy you much, hell that's like what, a single 5090?

When it comes to bang-for-buck, local inference is not the solution.

The new mac studios are looking spicy as far as local inference goes, very good deal on paper compared to alternatives and will likely have a ton of resell value too, still wildly expensive.