Free tool · runs in your browser
Cost per usable image
Almost everyone measures cost per generated image, which is the wrong denominator. This works out what you pay for the images you can actually publish — the figure your content economics turn on.
Cost per usable image $0.0082. Monthly GPU cost $3.29.
Cost per usable image
$0.0082
Result
Cost per usable image
$0.0082
The number that matters.
Cost per generated image
$0.0058
The number usually quoted.
Usable images per hour
84.0
Generations needed
571
To hit your monthly requirement.
GPU hours per month
4.8
Monthly GPU cost
$3.29
Your review time
1.3 hours / month
At even a modest hourly value for your own time this usually exceeds the GPU bill by a wide margin. Improving keeper rate cuts this line and the compute line together, which is why it is the one worth optimising.
Rent versus per-image API
- Rented GPU, monthly
- $3.29
- Per-image API, monthly
- $22.86
- Renting is cheaper by
- $19.57
The API comparison applies your keeper rate too, at $0.0571 per usable image. Most comparisons forget that, which flatters the API.
How to use it honestly
The calculator is only as good as one input, and it is not the GPU rate. Your keeper rate is the share of generations you would genuinely publish, and everyone estimates it generously.
Measure it once, properly: generate an uncurated batch of at least 200 images at your normal settings, review every one against your real publication standard, and divide keepers by total. Then come back and put the real figure in. The method is set out in full in the cost per usable image guide.
Where the presets come from
The GPU rate presets are Runpod's published Secure Cloud and Community Cloud figures as of August 2026, included so you have a realistic starting point rather than a blank field. Override them with your own provider's rate. Community Cloud rates float by host and pods there can be interrupted, which matters for training runs more than for batch generation.
What it does not do
It does not price your own hardware, because an honest own-hardware comparison needs purchase price, power, depreciation and maintenance hours over a couple of years, and a six-field calculator would make that look more precise than it is. It also does not store or transmit anything: the arithmetic runs in your browser and nothing you type leaves the page.