Tools to run AI on your own terms
thecontinuitylayer.com/toolsThe app that runs a model on your own machine, the hardware to run it on, a GPU you rent by the hour, or one key for many models: the tools for running open AI without handing all your work to one company.
Each category page compares the tools people actually use in one table: the price each company publishes, what it is for, and our one-line verdict. Every tool has its own page with specs, what it is good for and not for, and the day we last checked it. New to open models? Start with Run your own AI.
9 entries
Local AI apps
Ollama, LM Studio, Jan, Open WebUI and more: the apps that run AI on your own computer.
Start with LM Studio if you want an app with buttons, or Jan if you want the same thing in open source. Pick Ollama if you will connect other tools to your model, add Open WebUI on top for a ChatGPT-style page the household can share, and leave llama.cpp and vLLM for when you need full control or many users.
14 entries
Local hardware
Graphics cards, Macs and 128GB desk boxes: what each costs and what it runs.
For most people the answer is a used 24GB graphics card for 27–32B models, or a 128GB Mac Studio or Strix Halo mini PC for 70B-class and mixture-of-experts models. Buy memory first and speed second: a model that does not fit will not run at all.
10 entries
GPU hosting
Rent a graphics card by the hour or the second to run an open model.
For a first experiment, rent a 24GB card by the hour on Runpod or Vast.ai for under a dollar. For a model you will serve all day, Lambda, Nebius or DigitalOcean give you a plain H100 at a published hourly rate, and Modal is the pick when traffic comes in bursts.
8 entries
Routers
One API key for many models: hosted routers and gateways you run yourself.
If the 5.5% top-up fee is the only thing bothering you, Vercel AI Gateway and Kilo Gateway pass through provider prices with no markup. If you want to own the router, LiteLLM is free to self-host; if you need logging and guardrails in front of your own keys, Cloudflare AI Gateway is free and Portkey is the paid step up.
How we pick
A tool is listed because people use it to run open models, never because it pays. Prices come from each vendor's own page with the day we read them; where a vendor shows none, we say so instead of guessing. No company graded on the Scorecard gets a tool page.
No link on this page pays us today; if that changes it will be marked here. How links work on this site.
Last reviewed 6 November 2026. US dollars. No affiliate links.