Best buys: the quickest pay-back at each level of capability
For each amount of daily use, the machines and models that pay for themselves soonest, grouped by how capable the model is. Each model appears once, on its quickest machine.
The short version: at 1M tokens a day (a moderate coding-assistant day), the quickest Sonnet-class pay-back is Qwen3.8 27B on a Mac mini M6, 32GB, in 8.3 years.
Jump to: 50k/day · 200k/day · 1M/day · 4M/day · 20M/day
50k tokens a day · a few chats a day
| Model | Machine | Speed | Pays back in | |
|---|
| Sonnet-class · alongside Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Terra |
|---|
| Qwen3.8 27Bscore 34 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
166 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.8 Flash Nextscore 40 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
74 tok/s estimated |
3,715 years |
Open in the calculator |
| GLM-5.3-Flashscore 42 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
32 tok/s estimated |
9,650 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Haiku-class · alongside Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|
| Qwen3.6 27Bscore 22 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
188 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Muse Glimmer 30Bscore 18 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
220 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10Bscore 16 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
20 tok/s estimated |
533 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Below every hosted tier |
|---|
| Ministral 3 14Bscore 6 |
Mac mini M6, 24GB $1,099 |
9 tok/s estimated |
335 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Ministral 3 8Bscore 5 |
Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 |
12 tok/s estimated |
368 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Devstral 2 123Bscore 9 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
2 tok/s estimated |
585 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 48 never pay back, of 452 pairs that fit. |
200k tokens a day · light assistant use
| Model | Machine | Speed | Pays back in | |
|---|
| Sonnet-class · alongside Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Terra |
|---|
| Qwen3.8 27Bscore 34 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
42 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.8 Flash Nextscore 40 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
74 tok/s estimated |
929 years |
Open in the calculator |
| GLM-5.3-Flashscore 42 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
32 tok/s estimated |
2,413 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Haiku-class · alongside Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|
| Qwen3.6 27Bscore 22 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
47 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Muse Glimmer 30Bscore 18 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
55 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10Bscore 16 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
20 tok/s estimated |
133 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Below every hosted tier |
|---|
| Ministral 3 14Bscore 6 |
Mac mini M6, 24GB $1,099 |
9 tok/s estimated |
84 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Ministral 3 8Bscore 5 |
Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 |
12 tok/s estimated |
92 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Devstral 2 123Bscore 9 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
2 tok/s estimated |
146 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 48 never pay back, of 452 pairs that fit. |
1M tokens a day · a moderate coding-assistant day
| Model | Machine | Speed | Pays back in | |
|---|
| Sonnet-class · alongside Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Terra |
|---|
| Qwen3.8 27Bscore 34 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
8.3 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.8 Flash Nextscore 40 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
74 tok/s estimated |
186 years |
Open in the calculator |
| GLM-5.3-Flashscore 42 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
32 tok/s estimated |
483 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Haiku-class · alongside Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|
| Qwen3.6 27Bscore 22 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
9.4 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Muse Glimmer 30Bscore 18 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
11 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10Bscore 16 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
20 tok/s estimated |
27 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Below every hosted tier |
|---|
| Ministral 3 14Bscore 6 |
Mac mini M6, 24GB $1,099 |
9 tok/s estimated |
17 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Ministral 3 8Bscore 5 |
Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 |
12 tok/s estimated |
18 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Devstral 2 123Bscore 9 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
2 tok/s estimated |
29 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 48 never pay back, of 452 pairs that fit. |
4M tokens a day · heavy coding with an agent
| Model | Machine | Speed | Pays back in | |
|---|
| Sonnet-class · alongside Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Terra |
|---|
| Qwen3.8 27Bscore 34 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
2.1 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.8 Flash Nextscore 40 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
74 tok/s estimated |
46 years |
Open in the calculator |
| GLM-5.3-Flashscore 42 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
32 tok/s estimated |
121 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Haiku-class · alongside Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|
| Qwen3.6 27Bscore 22 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
2.4 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Muse Glimmer 30Bscore 18 |
Mac mini M6, 32GB $1,299 |
7 tok/s estimated |
2.8 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10Bscore 16 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
20 tok/s estimated |
6.7 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Below every hosted tier |
|---|
| Ministral 3 14Bscore 6 |
Mac mini M6, 24GB $1,099 |
9 tok/s estimated |
4.2 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Ministral 3 8Bscore 5 |
Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 |
12 tok/s estimated |
4.6 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Devstral 2 123Bscore 9 |
Mac Studio M5 Max, 128GB $5,099 |
5 tok/s estimated |
8.3 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 48 never pay back; 7 can’t produce this much in a day, of 452 pairs that fit. |
20M tokens a day · agents running most of the day
| Model | Machine | Speed | Pays back in | |
|---|
| Sonnet-class · alongside Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Terra |
|---|
| Qwen3.8 27Bscore 34 |
Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB $2,499 |
19 tok/s estimated |
9.5 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.8 Flash Nextscore 40 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
74 tok/s estimated |
9.3 years |
Open in the calculator |
| GLM-5.3-Flashscore 42 |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
32 tok/s estimated |
24 years |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 16 can’t produce this much in a day, of 28 pairs that fit. |
| Haiku-class · alongside Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|
| Qwen3.6 27Bscore 22 |
Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB $2,499 |
18 tok/s estimated |
11 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Muse Glimmer 30Bscore 18 |
Mac Studio M5 Max, 36GB $2,499 |
19 tok/s estimated |
13 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10Bscore 16 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
20 tok/s estimated |
16 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 63 can’t produce this much in a day, of 189 pairs that fit. |
| Below every hosted tier |
|---|
| Ministral 3 14Bscore 6 |
Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB $1,699 |
17 tok/s estimated |
16 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Ministral 3 8Bscore 5 |
Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB $1,269 |
20 tok/s estimated |
16 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Qwen3.5 9Bscore 14* |
Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 |
17 tok/s estimated |
21 months |
Open in the calculator |
| Also in this class: 32 never pay back; 58 can’t produce this much in a day, of 452 pairs that fit. |
Current machines at list price and current models only. Every row uses 15:1 input to output, $0.17 per kWh, 32k of context, and today's API prices held flat; switch on falling API prices in the calculator and the years stretch. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Models nobody rents are priced as their closest hosted match and say so. Scores are the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3; * marks a score the index estimated. Open any row to change the assumptions.