inferenstack — the market read on AI inference · last observation 2026-09-20. See the boards
Decide · How should I get compute?

Borrow, rent, or build?

Pick your workload and see the honest monthly cost of each route — build (own the GPUs), rent GPUs, pay per-token via API, or reserve provisioned throughput. Same deterministic engine as the Capacity Planner, distilled to the decision.

API (per-token)cheapestrecommended
$44/mo ±50%
Pay per token to a hosted provider
comparableCOST-03
Rent GPUs
$402/mo ±50%
Marketplace + neocloud, cheapest live rate
comparableCOST-02
Build (self-host)
$1.6k/mo ±50%
Own the GPUs — capex + power + colo + staff
estimatedCOST-01
Provisioned throughput
not offered at this scale
Reserved capacity (Azure PTU-style)
comparableCOST-04

Costs carry a ±50% accuracy band from the engine's back-tests. Archetypes are ranked on cost only — never on reliability or latency, which we don't measure yet.

Want the full breakdown?

The Capacity Planner shows the sizing math, per-line self-host costs (capex/power/colo/staff), break-even utilization, and the token budget behind these numbers.

Open the Capacity Planner

“Rent” spans marketplace and neocloud at the cheapest live rate; hyperscaler on-demand and dedicated contract pricing are separate rental classes on the roadmap. No route is ranked on reliability — we don't measure it yet.