Cloud AI or own server – which is cheaper?

Two different cost models

Cloud: Billing based on processed text volume. No fixed costs, no investment. Those who use nothing pay nothing.

Own server: Purchase or rental, electricity, maintenance, personnel. These costs occur regardless of system usage.

The honest calculation

The own server side includes not only hardware and electricity:

• Setup and commissioning
• Ongoing updates for model and operating system
• Monitoring and troubleshooting
• Replacement after several years
• Working time – the largest and most frequently forgotten item

A comparison that only pits electricity costs against provider prices reliably favors the own server and is reliably incorrect.

When the switch becomes sensible

Not at the beginning. The usual and reasonable approach:

1. Start with a provider and measure actual demand.
2. After three months, evaluate actual costs and volumes.
3. Only then decide – with numbers instead of assumptions.

When price is not the deciding factor

For health data, personnel files or documents with confidentiality obligations, the question may be: Is processing with the provider even permissible? In such cases, the own server is not a cost decision, but a prerequisite for the project to be allowed to proceed.