Assumptions
The comparison holds under these conditions. Change them and the result changes.
350 million tokensa month for a senior developer working every day with a coding agent: the average spend of $150-250 a month reported in the Claude Code documentation, converted to tokens.
94.3% read from cacheSplit taken from the official session example: 5.0% written to cache, 0.5% output, 0.1% new input. That is 330 million read, 18 million written, 1.9 million output and 421,475 input a month.
1 developerCloud cost grows with people, the machine's does not as long as it can handle the load: that is why the table shows from how many developers the machine pays off.
| Dedicated machine: the three conditions | Value |
|---|---|
| 1. Configuration and purchase price (estimate, VAT included) Workstation with 2 × NVIDIA RTX 5090 (64 GB of VRAM), 128 GB of DDR5 RAM, 4 TB NVMe SSD, 1600 W power supply | €8,500 |
| 2. Electricity cost 900 W on average for 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, switched off out of hours: 158 kWh a month | €0.30/kWh |
| 3. Depreciation After that the hardware is outdated and worth nothing | 3 years |
| Monthly cost of the machine Depreciation €236 + electricity €48 | €284 |
Your case
Change the assumptions: verdict, table and chart are recalculated straight away. The page link keeps your choices, so you can share them.
€
€/kWh
Cheapest cloud
Most expensive top-tier cloud
Dedicated machine
Today's comparison
Monthly cost for one developer with today's API price lists, converted to euros at the ECB rate.
| Provider | Model | Cost a month | Versus the machine | Machine pays off from | Break-even tokens a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude Opus 5.5 top tier | €171 | −€112 | 2 | 580 million |
| Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | €86 | −€198 | 4 | 1,159 million |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 sol top tier | €230 | −€54 | 2 | 432 million |
| OpenAI | GPT-5.6 terra | €118 | −€165 | 3 | 839 million |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro top tier | €110 | −€173 | 3 | 898 million | |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | €40 | −€243 | 8 | 2,470 million | |
| In-house | Dedicated machine | €284 | — | — | — |
"Machine pays off from" is the number of developers on the same machine beyond which the cloud costs more. "Break-even tokens" is the monthly usage at which cloud and machine cost the same.
Trend
Monthly cost for one developer, day by day: top-tier models against the dedicated machine. It changes when price lists or the dollar/euro rate change.
- Claude Opus 5.5
- GPT-5.6 sol
- Gemini 3.1 Pro
- Dedicated machine
History table
| Day | Claude Opus 5.5 | GPT-5.6 sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Dedicated machine | USD per EUR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19/10/2026 | €171 | €230 | €110 | €284 | 1.1253 |
| 18/10/2026 | €171 | €230 | €110 | €284 | 1.1253 |
| 17/10/2026 | €171 | €230 | €110 | €284 | 1.1253 |
| 16/10/2026 | €171 | €230 | €110 | €284 | 1.1253 |
| 15/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1208 |
| 14/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1195 |
| 13/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1188 |
| 12/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1181 |
| 11/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1206 |
| 10/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1206 |
| 09/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1206 |
| 08/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1186 |
| 07/10/2026 | €172 | €232 | €111 | €284 | 1.1177 |
| 06/10/2026 | €171 | €230 | €110 | €284 | 1.1269 |
| 05/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1204 |
| 04/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1225 |
| 03/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1225 |
| 02/10/2026 | €172 | €231 | €111 | €284 | 1.1225 |
| 01/10/2026 | €171 | €229 | €110 | €284 | 1.1298 |
| 30/09/2026 | €170 | €228 | €110 | €284 | 1.1355 |
| 29/09/2026 | €170 | €228 | €110 | €284 | 1.1355 |
| 28/09/2026 | €169 | €227 | €109 | €284 | 1.1378 |
| 27/09/2026 | €169 | €227 | €109 | €284 | 1.1403 |
| 26/09/2026 | €169 | €227 | €109 | €284 | 1.1403 |
| 25/09/2026 | €169 | €227 | €109 | €284 | 1.1403 |
| 24/09/2026 | €170 | €228 | €109 | €284 | 1.1367 |
| 23/09/2026 | €169 | €227 | €109 | €284 | 1.1411 |
| 22/09/2026 | €168 | €226 | €108 | €284 | 1.1463 |
| 21/09/2026 | — | €225 | €108 | €284 | 1.1490 |
| 20/09/2026 | — | €226 | €108 | €284 | 1.1460 |
| 19/09/2026 | — | €226 | €108 | €284 | 1.1460 |
| 18/09/2026 | — | €226 | €108 | €284 | 1.1460 |
| 17/09/2026 | — | €225 | €108 | €284 | 1.1481 |
| 16/09/2026 | — | €224 | €108 | €284 | 1.1537 |
| 15/09/2026 | — | €224 | €108 | €284 | 1.1539 |
| 14/09/2026 | — | €224 | €108 | €284 | 1.1551 |
| 13/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1592 |
| 12/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1592 |
| 11/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1592 |
| 10/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1616 |
| 09/09/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1652 |
| 08/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1614 |
| 07/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1622 |
| 06/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1622 |
| 05/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1622 |
| 04/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1622 |
| 03/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1615 |
| 02/09/2026 | — | €224 | €107 | €284 | 1.1578 |
| 01/09/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1590 |
| 31/08/2026 | — | €223 | €107 | €284 | 1.1596 |
| 30/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1643 |
| 29/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1643 |
| 28/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1643 |
| 27/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1645 |
| 26/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1669 |
| 25/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1662 |
| 24/08/2026 | — | €222 | €107 | €284 | 1.1664 |
| 23/08/2026 | — | €221 | €106 | €284 | 1.1699 |
| 22/08/2026 | — | €221 | €106 | €284 | 1.1699 |
| 21/08/2026 | — | €284 | €106 | €284 | 1.1699 |
| 20/08/2026 | — | €285 | €106 | €284 | 1.1681 |
| 19/08/2026 | — | €287 | €107 | €284 | 1.1605 |
| 18/08/2026 | — | €287 | €107 | €284 | 1.1576 |
| 17/08/2026 | — | €287 | €107 | €284 | 1.1593 |
| 16/08/2026 | — | €288 | €107 | €284 | 1.1567 |
| 15/08/2026 | — | €288 | €107 | €284 | 1.1567 |
| 14/08/2026 | — | €288 | €107 | €284 | 1.1567 |
| 13/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1534 |
| 12/08/2026 | — | €288 | €108 | €284 | 1.1545 |
| 11/08/2026 | — | €288 | €108 | €284 | 1.1540 |
| 10/08/2026 | — | €288 | €108 | €284 | 1.1555 |
| 09/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1535 |
| 08/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1535 |
| 07/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1535 |
| 06/08/2026 | — | €288 | €108 | €284 | 1.1542 |
| 05/08/2026 | — | €288 | €108 | €284 | 1.1554 |
| 04/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1515 |
| 03/08/2026 | — | €289 | €108 | €284 | 1.1535 |
| 02/08/2026 | — | €290 | €108 | €284 | 1.1485 |
| 01/08/2026 | — | €290 | €108 | €284 | 1.1485 |
| 31/07/2026 | — | €290 | €108 | €284 | 1.1485 |
| 30/07/2026 | — | €290 | €108 | €284 | 1.1476 |
| 29/07/2026 | — | €292 | €109 | €284 | 1.1380 |
| 28/07/2026 | — | €293 | €109 | €284 | 1.1367 |
| 27/07/2026 | — | €292 | €109 | €284 | 1.1389 |
| 26/07/2026 | — | €293 | €109 | €284 | 1.1377 |
| 25/07/2026 | — | €293 | €109 | €284 | 1.1377 |
| 24/07/2026 | — | €293 | €109 | €284 | 1.1377 |
| 23/07/2026 | — | €292 | €109 | €284 | 1.1392 |
| 22/07/2026 | — | €292 | €109 | €284 | 1.1408 |
| 21/07/2026 | — | €291 | €109 | €284 | 1.1418 |
| 20/07/2026 | — | €291 | €109 | €284 | 1.1426 |
Where the cost comes from
Price per million tokens in dollars and monthly spend in euros for one developer using 350 million tokens, by token type.
| Model | Cache read | Cache write | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | 0.200 $ · €59 | 5.000 $ · €78 | 4.000 $ · €1 | 20.000 $ · €33 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | 0.100 $ · €29 | 2.500 $ · €39 | 2.000 $ · €1 | 10.000 $ · €17 |
| GPT-5.6 sol | 0.400 $ · €117 | 5.000 $ · €78 | 4.000 $ · €1 | 20.000 $ · €33 |
| GPT-5.6 terra | 0.200 $ · €59 | 2.500 $ · €39 | 2.000 $ · €1 | 12.000 $ · €20 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | 0.200 $ · €59 | 2.000 $ · €31 | 2.000 $ · €1 | 12.000 $ · €20 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | 0.075 $ · €22 | 0.750 $ · €12 | 0.750 $ · €0 | 3.750 $ · €6 |
What this comparison does not tell you
- Quality is not the same. The machine runs open models (Qwen, GLM, DeepSeek and similar): for coding-agent work they are not on par with top-tier cloud models today. Only costs are compared here.
- Subscriptions are not included. With flat-rate plans (such as Claude Max) the cost per developer can be lower than the API list prices shown here.
- Standard list prices: no discounts, batch pricing or enterprise contracts, and no surcharges for very long contexts (above 200-272 thousand tokens) that some providers apply. Where a provider does not charge for cache writes, they are priced as input.
- The history follows the LiteLLM price list version by version, day by day: besides provider price changes it may reflect corrections to the list itself. A model appears from the day it enters the list.
- The machine: the price is an estimate; maintenance, space, network and the time of whoever runs it are left out. How many concurrent developers it can serve has not been tested.
Sources: price lists from the pricing file of the open source project LiteLLM (MIT license), checked against the official Anthropic, OpenAI and Google price lists; reference exchange rate from the European Central Bank; average usage from the Claude Code documentation. The data is also available in JSON format.