llama 3.3 70b

2 articles · newest first

Hand-drawn editorial illustration of a level seesaw balancing a graphics card on one end against a tall stack of lime-green coins on the other

Self-Hosted LLM vs API Break-Even: Tokens per Day by Model (Live GPU Prices)

Renting a GPU for an open model looks cheaper than paying per token until you price the same model on the cheapest API. We did it for four open models, from Llama 3.1 8B to Llama 3.3 70B, with live GPU rates from our own tracker and list prices read on October 2, 2026. Against the same model's API, one rented GPU almost never wins. Against a frontier model, it wins from about 2 to 6 million tokens a day.

Aliteq Team · Oct 2, 2026 · 12 min

Night line-art GPU card with the Vast.ai and Runpod logos and the headline: Llama 70B on one rented 48 GB card. A price card reads RTX A6000 48 GB, Vast on-demand, from $0.35 an hour, read Nov 3, 2026.

What does it cost per hour to run Llama 70B on a rented GPU, and which card?

One 48 GB card holds Llama 3.3 70B at Q4_K_M (a 42.5 GB file), and on Nov 3, 2026 the cheapest was an RTX A6000 on Vast from about $0.35 an hour on-demand, or an A40 or RTX A6000 on Runpod at $0.59. When you need an 80 GB card instead, what an evening really costs, and when a per-token API is cheaper than any GPU.

Aliteq Team · Updated Nov 6, 2026 · 8 min