decision

Three approaches with overlapping ranges, and the choice is decided by the facility and the service model rather than by thermodynamics alone. Where each runs out, what the middle option buys that people underrate, and the operational cost that comes with the most capable one.

The break-even is a utilization number, not a price comparison, and most teams overestimate the utilization they will actually reach. The full cost of owning, the number that decides it, and the two situations where renting wins even at high utilization.

Three engines, one hardware roofline, and the difference between them is which part of the roofline each one reaches first on your workload. The decision is a table, and the table has reversal conditions.

The self-hosted price falls with volume and the API price does not, so the two cross at a token rate. Where that crossing sits, the fixed cost floor that makes low volume expensive, and the three reasons that override the arithmetic in both directions.

Benchmark rankings answer a question your product did not ask, and candidates usually differ more in what they cost to serve than in what they can do. The four axes in elimination order, and the deployment floor that rules candidates out before quality is discussed.