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Self-Hosting vs API: When Local LLMs Actually Cost Less
Founder Guides
Jun 23, 20264 min read

Self-Hosting vs API: When Local LLMs Actually Cost Less

Local open models can run inference at near-zero marginal cost when you reuse hardware you already own, but they are rarely truly free once you count electricity, throughput limits, and engineering time.

Oracle Cloud GPU Pricing in 2026: H100 vs H200 vs B200 Per-Hour Cost
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20263 min read

Oracle Cloud GPU Pricing in 2026: H100 vs H200 vs B200 Per-Hour Cost

Oracle Cloud prices H100, H200, and B200 GPUs at different per-hour rates, but the cheapest choice depends on your model size and utilization, not on which chip is newest.

TPU 8i vs NVIDIA Rubin and B200: Cost Per Token for LLM Inference (2026)
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20264 min read

TPU 8i vs NVIDIA Rubin and B200: Cost Per Token for LLM Inference (2026)

The accelerator with the best benchmark is not always the cheapest per token, because cost per token depends on price per hour, real throughput, and how much migration and lock-in you have to amortize.

NVIDIA B200 Cloud Pricing in 2026: How to Compare Per-Hour GPU Costs
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20263 min read

NVIDIA B200 Cloud Pricing in 2026: How to Compare Per-Hour GPU Costs

B200 rental prices vary widely across clouds, so the number that matters is not dollars per hour but dollars per million tokens once you factor in throughput and utilization.

AI Pricing Is Going Up: Why Today's Cheap LLM Costs Won't Last
Pricing Strategy
Jun 23, 20264 min read

AI Pricing Is Going Up: Why Today's Cheap LLM Costs Won't Last

Today's AI prices are partly subsidized by investors chasing market share, so as that money tightens, per-token prices and tiers can climb. Build your margins for the expensive future, not the cheap present.

LLM Inference Cost at Scale: Napkin Math for Founders
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20264 min read

LLM Inference Cost at Scale: Napkin Math for Founders

To estimate LLM inference cost, multiply tokens per request by requests per month by your blended price per million tokens, then stress-test each assumption before you trust the total.

Why the Cheapest LLM Provider Won't Save Your Margins
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20264 min read

Why the Cheapest LLM Provider Won't Save Your Margins

Switching to the cheapest LLM provider rarely rescues a thin margin, because your token volume and product design drive cost far more than a lower headline $/1M-token rate.

What a $150M/Month Compute Deal Says About Your Token Costs
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20264 min read

What a $150M/Month Compute Deal Says About Your Token Costs

When an AI lab commits to about $150M a month for GPUs, that fixed cost has to be earned back through the tokens it sells, which is why your per-token price is really a bet on someone else's utilization.

What a $28B Neocloud Tells You About Your AI Token Costs
LLM Economics
Jun 23, 20264 min read

What a $28B Neocloud Tells You About Your AI Token Costs

A neocloud is a GPU-only cloud built for AI compute, and when one reportedly clears $28B a year, it is a signal that the compute under your LLM bill is a large, fast-moving cost you should model as a variable, not a constant.

Your Load Balancer Is Quietly Inflating Your LLM Bill
LLM Economics
Jun 22, 20264 min read

Your Load Balancer Is Quietly Inflating Your LLM Bill

Standard load balancers scatter requests across servers at random, which breaks prefix caching and makes you pay full price for tokens you already cached. Prefix-aware routing fixes it.

Governed AI Usage: How an AI Gateway Controls Token Spend
LLM Economics
Jun 22, 20264 min read

Governed AI Usage: How an AI Gateway Controls Token Spend

An AI gateway is a control plane that wraps every model request with identity, policy, safety, and observability, turning unpredictable token spend into a number you can govern and price against.

Best AI Cost Optimization Tools in 2026: A Buyer's Framework
LLM Economics
Jun 22, 20264 min read

Best AI Cost Optimization Tools in 2026: A Buyer's Framework

The best AI cost optimization tool depends on four things: how deeply it attributes spend, whether it can enforce limits, how much of your stack it covers, and whether it connects cost to pricing.

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