Code Completion API: Cost at 100 Developers
What does it cost to run code completion api at 100 developers? Self-hosted dedicated GPU vs API provider pricing.
Monthly Cost Comparison at 100 developers
| Provider | Monthly Cost | Pricing Model | vs GigaGPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| GigaGPU (RTX 5090) | £179/mo | Fixed | — |
| GitHub Copilot Business | £1900/mo | Per-dev-seats | 91% cheaper with GigaGPU |
| Codeium Enterprise | £1500/mo | Per-dev-seats | 88% cheaper with GigaGPU |
| Amazon CodeWhisperer | £1900/mo | Per-dev-seats | 91% cheaper with GigaGPU |
Per-Seat Licensing Does Not Scale
GitHub Copilot Business charges £19 per developer per month. Multiply that by 100 engineers and you are looking at £1,900/month — for a tool that sends your proprietary code to external servers for every completion. A single RTX 5090 on GigaGPU at £179/month serves all 100 developers from your own infrastructure.
That is a 91% cost reduction. But the financial argument is only part of it. Every keystroke your developers type flows through a third-party API when using Copilot. With self-hosted code completion, your codebase stays on your hardware — no data leakage, no IP exposure, no compliance risk.
Annual savings potential: Up to £20,652 per year compared to the most expensive API option, assuming consistent 100 developers usage.
Why Engineering Teams Self-Host Code Completion
- Source code privacy: Your proprietary code never leaves your server. Critical for fintech, defence, healthcare, and any company protecting trade secrets.
- Custom fine-tuning: Train on your codebase, internal libraries, and coding conventions. Get completions that match your architecture patterns, not generic suggestions.
- No seat-count anxiety: Add 10 more developers next month with zero cost increase. Per-seat pricing penalises growth; fixed GPU pricing rewards it.
- Offline capability: Air-gapped development environments and high-security facilities need code completion without internet connectivity.
When Commercial Tools Justify Their Cost
- Small teams under 10 developers: At £190/month for 10 seats, Copilot may cost less than self-hosting when factoring in setup time.
- IDE integration depth: Copilot and Codeium offer polished IDE plugins that take effort to replicate with self-hosted models.
- Rapid onboarding: No infrastructure setup — activate seats and developers are productive immediately.
Recommended Setup
A single RTX 5090 at £179/month runs DeepSeek Coder or CodeLlama with enough throughput to serve 100 concurrent developers. GigaGPU servers ship pre-configured with CUDA, Docker, and inference frameworks for deployment in under 15 minutes.
Replace Per-Seat Billing with Flat-Rate AI Coding
Serve 100 developers with self-hosted code completion for £179/month. No per-seat fees, no code leaving your infrastructure.
