Local model vs API: what changes when the AI runs on your machine

Lesson 9 of how the AI thinks: the same kind of model can run on a company's servers or on your own computer. What changes: privacy, cost, speed,… Aliteq Sam Ortega · Build Editor

API models run on the provider's servers; local models run on yours

Local keeps prompts on your machine; APIs send them out

Locally, your GPU's VRAM decides what you can run

An app you ship to other people usually calls an API or a rented GPU. Your own laptop won't serve strangers. Local shines for private experiments and for running coding agents on your own code: see…

What this means for your app

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