>I know it doesn't make financial sense to self-host given how cheap OSS inference APIs are now

You can calculate the exact cost of home inference, given you know your hardware and can measure electrical consumption and compare it to your bill.

I have no idea what cloud inference in aggregate actually costs, whether it’s profitable or a VC infused loss leader that will spike in price later.

That’s why I’m using cloud inference now to build out my local stack.