Self-hosting AI doesn't save money, and this developer does it anyway
basnijholt · reddit · 2026-10-03
Reddit user and long-time self-hosting enthusiast basnijholt published a blog post arguing that self-hosting AI rarely saves money: hardware depreciation, electricity, maintenance time, and opportunity cost usually exceed API costs.
He still self-hosts anyway, valuing privacy, data sovereignty, no rate limits, and always-on availability. The post is a concrete cost breakdown pushing back on a common r/LocalLLaMA assumption, useful for anyone weighing local deployment against commercial APIs.
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