Tesla P40 for local LLMs — what fits in 24 GB & the real cost

Rent a Tesla P40 from $0.13/hr ($0 markup, as of 2026-07-09). 414 of the 582 models in our catalog fit its 24 GB — plus the honest own-vs-rent-vs-API math, electricity and amortization included.

Three honest ways to run AI on a Tesla P40

• Own it: buy the card and pay electricity + amortization — local is real money, not "$0".
• Rent it: from $0.13/GPU-hr on your own vendor account (as of 2026-07-09, $0 markup — we never resell compute).
• Skip it: run a comparable open model through your own API key, paying per million tokens (prices as of 2026-08-17).

Rent a Tesla P40 — real vendor rates, $0 markup

• Vast.ai: $0.13/GPU-hr — vendor's own price as of 2026-07-09; you pay them directly.

• Rent on Vast.ai — $0.13/hr, your own account (referral link)

Links marked "referral link" are disclosed referrals — the vendor pays us a small cut and the price you pay is unchanged. Referrals never affect a rate or a ranking. See /affiliate-disclosure/.

What fits in 24 GB

• 414 of the 582 models in the Spanvero catalog fit on one Tesla P40 at a sensible quant (context capped at 16k for the estimate). Most capable first:
• Laguna XS.2 (poolside, 33.4B) — ~24 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.15/1M tokens (last-known).
• Laguna XS 2.1 NVFP4 (poolside, 33.4B) — ~24 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.37/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Laguna XS 2.1 (poolside, 33.4B) — ~24 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.09/1M tokens.
• sarvam 30b (sarvamai, 32.2B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.36/1M tokens (size estimate).
• llm jp 4 32b a3b thinking (llm-jp, 32.1B) — ~23 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.36/1M tokens (size estimate).
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B BF16 (nvidia, 31.6B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.35/1M tokens (size estimate).
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16 (nvidia, 31.6B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.35/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B (nvidia, 31.6B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.35/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen3 30B A3B (Qwen, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.33/1M tokens.
• Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (Qwen, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.18/1M tokens.
• Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 (Qwen, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.12/1M tokens.
• Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507 (Qwen, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $1.30/1M tokens.
• Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B (Alibaba-NLP, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.34/1M tokens (size estimate).
• Qwen3 30B A3B Base (Qwen, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.34/1M tokens (size estimate).
• lynx instruct 30b (bineric, 30.5B) — ~22 GB at Q4_K_M; own-key API alternative ≈ $0.34/1M tokens (size estimate).

• Laguna XS.2 — full cost breakdown
• Laguna XS 2.1 NVFP4 — full cost breakdown
• Laguna XS 2.1 — full cost breakdown
• sarvam 30b — full cost breakdown
• llm jp 4 32b a3b thinking — full cost breakdown
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B BF16 — full cost breakdown
• NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16 — full cost breakdown
• Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507 — full cost breakdown
• Tongyi DeepResearch 30B A3B — full cost breakdown
• Qwen3 30B A3B Base — full cost breakdown
• lynx instruct 30b — full cost breakdown

Own a Tesla P40 vs rent it — the honest math

• Used NVIDIA Tesla P40 24GB (used market): street price $320.00 (as of 2026-06-30; GPUDojo used-price roundup + eBay listings, Jun 2026 (avg ~$404, typical working-pull listings $300–$320; passive server card — needs ducted cooling, no FP16 fast path)) → $0.2922/day amortized over 3 years.
• Electricity ≈ $0.7265/1M tokens at 250 W and $0.19/kWh (EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A — U.S. residential average, Apr 2026, as of 2026-07-02), assuming ~18 tok/s (8B-class model at Q4).
• vs renting: owning wins above ~3.5 active hours/day at the cheapest logged rate ($0.13/hr).
• vs API: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at $0.07/1M (as of 2026-08-17) is cheaper than the electricity alone — owning never breaks even at any volume.

Rent-price history (append-only daily log)

• Vast.ai: $0.13/hr on 2026-07-09 → $0.13/hr on 2026-08-23 (+0.0%). Logged daily; never back-filled.

Keep exploring

• Can a Tesla P40 run it? Check any model
• All GPUs — rental rates compared
• Can I run it? Check any model against your hardware
• Outcome Lab — include retries and failures
• All models that run on 24 GB of VRAM
• How we stay honest

Building a local rig? Hardware that matches these numbers

• Tesla P40 — 24 GB VRAM — Shop on Amazon
• 16-core desktop CPU — Shop on Amazon
• 64 GB DDR5 RAM kit — Shop on Amazon
• 750 W+ 80+ Gold PSU (ATX 3.0) — Shop on Amazon
• High-airflow full-tower case — Shop on Amazon
• Electricity usage monitor (watt meter) — Shop on Amazon
• Forced-air duct for passive server GPUs — Shop on Amazon

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Open the free LLM cost calculator → · GPU rate table dated 2026-07-09. $0 markup — your own accounts, we never resell compute. © 2026 Cynosure LLC.