what does it actually cost to run a local LLM? the electricity bill nobody calculates

Everyone talks about the GPU price, but a local AI rig has a running cost too. It's smaller than you fear — but if you're in Europe, it's not… Aliteq Ravi Malhotra · Hardware Editor

Running a local LLM costs electricity on top of the hardware. A 350–450W GPU running 8 hours a day costs roughly €20–30/month at European rates (€0.30/kWh), or about $10–15/month at typical US…

350W GPU, 8 hrs/day: ~€25/month at €0.30/kWh (Europe); ~$10–15 at US rates.

Efficient Mac/mini PC (~40W): a few dollars a month for the same work.

Idle draw is low — GPUs sip power between generations; sustained work is what costs.

Europe pays more — high electricity prices strengthen the case for efficient hardware.

Still cheaper than cloud for regular use — the running cost is small next to rental over time.

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