AI Coding Assistant Costs Today
AI coding assistants have become essential developer tools, but the costs add up quickly across a team. GitHub Copilot charges per seat, API-based solutions charge per token, and both scale linearly. Self-hosting a code-specialised model on a dedicated GPU server provides unlimited usage at a flat monthly rate. Let us break down the true cost of each approach.
Whether you are building an internal coding assistant or integrating AI into your development workflow, understanding the economics helps you choose the most cost-effective path. GigaGPU’s coding assistant hosting provides pre-configured servers with code models ready to deploy.
Commercial Coding Tool Pricing
| Tool | Per Seat/Month | 10 Developers | 50 Developers | 100 Developers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot Individual | $10 | $100 | $500 | $1,000 |
| GitHub Copilot Business | $19 | $190 | $950 | $1,900 |
| GitHub Copilot Enterprise | $39 | $390 | $1,950 | $3,900 |
| Cursor Pro | $20 | $200 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| Tabnine Enterprise | $39 | $390 | $1,950 | $3,900 |
At 50+ developers, commercial coding tools cost $1,000-$3,900 per month. And you get no control over the model, no ability to fine-tune on your codebase, and no data privacy guarantees.
API-Based Coding Assistant Costs
Building your own coding assistant using APIs adds flexibility but costs per token. Developers generating code completions, explanations, and reviews can easily consume 5-10M tokens per day:
| API Provider | Cost per Developer/Month (est.) | 10 Devs | 50 Devs | 100 Devs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o (heavy use) | $150-$300 | $2,000 | $10,000 | $20,000 |
| Claude Sonnet (heavy use) | $200-$400 | $2,500 | $12,500 | $25,000 |
| DeepSeek Coder | $10-$30 | $150 | $750 | $1,500 |
| Groq (LLaMA 70B) | $30-$80 | $400 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
Estimates based on 150-300M tokens per developer per month (moderate-to-heavy use including completions, chat, and code review).
Self-Hosted Coding Models: Full Breakdown
Self-hosting a code model on dedicated GPU hardware eliminates per-seat and per-token fees entirely:
| Code Model | GPU Setup | Monthly Cost | Max Concurrent Devs | Cost per Dev (10 devs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek Coder 6.7B | 1x RTX 5090 | $149/mo | 10-15 | $14.90 |
| CodeLlama 34B | 1x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | $299/mo | 10-20 | $29.90 |
| DeepSeek Coder V2 (236B) | 2x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | $599/mo | 15-25 | $39.93 |
| LLaMA 3 70B (code-tuned) | 2x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | $599/mo | 15-25 | $39.93 |
| High-capacity setup | 4x RTX 6000 Pro 96 GB | $899/mo | 30-50 | $17.98 |
A single RTX 5090 at $149/month supports 10-15 developers with DeepSeek Coder. That is $14.90 per developer, cheaper than GitHub Copilot Business. Deploy via vLLM for the fastest inference.
Cost Comparison by Team Size
| Team Size | Copilot Business | GPT-4o API | Self-Hosted (best fit) | Savings vs Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 devs | $95/mo | $1,000/mo | $149/mo (RTX 5090) | API wins |
| 10 devs | $190/mo | $2,000/mo | $149/mo (RTX 5090) | $41 saved (22%) |
| 25 devs | $475/mo | $5,000/mo | $299/mo (RTX 6000 Pro) | $176 saved (37%) |
| 50 devs | $950/mo | $10,000/mo | $599/mo (2x RTX 6000 Pro) | $351 saved (37%) |
| 100 devs | $1,900/mo | $20,000/mo | $899/mo (4x RTX 6000 Pro) | $1,001 saved (53%) |
Self-hosting breaks even with Copilot at 8-10 developers and becomes increasingly cost-effective at scale. Against API-based solutions, the savings are even more dramatic. See the full break-even analysis.
Quality: Commercial vs Self-Hosted
Modern open-source code models are competitive with commercial tools:
- DeepSeek Coder V2 scores within 2-3% of GPT-4o on HumanEval and MBPP benchmarks
- CodeLlama 34B handles multi-file context and complex refactoring well
- Fine-tuning advantage: train on your own codebase for dramatically better completions on your specific code patterns
Self-hosting also provides complete code privacy. Your proprietary source code never leaves your server, which is critical for security-conscious organisations. See our complete cost guide for the full comparison landscape.
Build Your Own Coding Assistant
Setting up a self-hosted coding assistant takes less than a day:
- Choose a GPU server based on your team size (see table above)
- Deploy DeepSeek Coder or CodeLlama via vLLM
- Connect via the OpenAI-compatible API endpoint
- Integrate with your IDE using the Continue.dev extension or similar
Follow our self-host LLM guide for detailed setup instructions. For ROI projections, see the GPU hosting ROI calculator, and explore alternatives to cloud GPU platforms for the best deal.
Deploy Your Own Coding Assistant
Unlimited AI-powered code completions from $149/month. Cheaper than Copilot at 10+ seats.
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