ai-infrastructurelocal-llmcloud-computingai-engineeringcost-optimization Local LLM vs Cloud API at 12 Months: The 3 Line Items Every Per-Token Comparison Omits A Mac mini running local inference sat busy 1.7% of the time over three weeks. That number kills the usual local-vs-cloud spreadsheet math. michael tuszynski Aug 09, 2026 6 min read