Local AI Electricity Cost Calculator
Set what your computer draws, how long it runs and what you pay for power, and see what local AI costs you in electricity.
How this calculator works
- Cost is watts ÷ 1,000 × hours × your price per kWh. “Per month” assumes a 30-day month and “per year” 365 days.
- Every input is yours. Makers publish a graphics card’s maximum power, not what it draws while running a model, and nobody publishes tokens-per-second figures. We don’t guess either one; see our methodology. The figures the page opens with are examples.
- Cost per million tokens is the electricity used in the time your computer takes to generate a million tokens at the speed you entered. It counts generating only, not reading the prompt or sitting idle.
- API prices are each model’s published price per million output tokens, from the provider’s own pricing page, re-checked every day.
- What’s left out: the price of the hardware, and any difference in quality between a model you can run at home and the one behind an API.
- Your numbers stay private. The calculation runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
How is the electricity cost of local AI calculated?
Power in watts ÷ 1,000 gives kilowatts. Kilowatts × hours of use gives kilowatt-hours (kWh), the unit on your electricity bill. kWh × your price per kWh gives the cost. A month is counted as 30 days and a year as 365.
How do I find out how many watts my computer draws?
A plug-in power meter between the computer and the wall socket shows what the whole machine really draws while a model is running. Without one, the maker’s spec page lists a graphics card’s maximum power; using that figure gives you an upper limit, since a card rarely runs flat out the whole time and the rest of the computer adds its own draw.
Why do I have to enter the wattage myself?
Makers publish the most a graphics card can draw, not what it draws while running a particular model, and nobody publishes that second figure. We only show numbers we can source, so this one has to be yours.
Where do I find my electricity price?
Your electricity bill or your supplier’s tariff page shows the price per kWh. Use the all-in unit rate if your bill shows one. Enter it in US dollars if you want to compare with API prices, which are published in US dollars.
Is running AI locally cheaper than paying for an API?
On electricity alone it can be, but that isn’t the whole picture. This calculator leaves out what the hardware cost you, and a model that runs on a home computer is not the same model you’d be paying for through an API. Treat the comparison as “what does the power cost me”, not as a like-for-like price match.
Does the computer use electricity when the model is idle?
Yes. A computer that is switched on draws power whether or not a model is answering. “Hours a day” should be the time the machine is on because of your local AI use, and the cost per million tokens counts only the time spent generating.
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