Recommended
The sensible default
The best balance of capability, privacy, and money for the constraints you chose.
- Hardware
- ~$3,200
- Cloud / month
- $15–$24
- Runs locally
- 80%
- Breaks even
- Tokens winThe hardware never recoups its cost at this volume. Tokens stay cheaper.
MachineRTX 5090 class32 GB VRAM · 1,792 GB/s
Fast local inference for everyday models, backed by APIs only when the job merits it.
NVIDIA RTX 5090 specifications ↗Model routes
Gemma 4 31B
Qwen3.6 27B
Amazon Nova Lite
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
Mistral Small 4Why it fits
- Pairs high local token speed with enough VRAM for a capable multimodal model.
- Routine work stays on the economical route while difficult jobs have a clear fallback.
- Ranked on a measured intelligence index of 37.
Reality check
- Treat hardware prices as planning allowances and check a live listing first.
- API estimate assumes 70% input / 30% output and excludes caching discounts.
- Sustained heavy volume can outrun personal plan limits.
- Token speeds come from memory-bandwidth math at batch size 1. Measure before you rely on them.