for financial planners · 2026 prices

The cost of moving forward

A new laptop, a Mac, or an "agentic" AI desktop? This tool compares them the way a planner should — by total cost of ownership, not the spec sheet. Set the planning horizon and your client's actual work, and watch the headline numbers reorder. The future is relational, not tech-based: past a modest threshold, extra dollars buy compute the client never touches.

How long the client keeps the machine before replacing it.
U.S. average ≈ $0.17. Running cost recomputes from each machine's annual kWh.
The default — total cost — is the planner's number.
Client's actual work

// the options, by total cost

Nine machines, one honest number each

Every card shows upfront price plus running cost over your horizon, the work it genuinely serves, and — only if you ask — the tech specs. Estimated figures are marked est; every price links to its source.

// own the compute, or rent the relationship?

Buy the box, or subscribe — over time

For everyday and creative work the AI capability lives in a flat subscription that no machine replaces. For local frontier AI, buying a box can beat renting cloud compute — but only above a real usage threshold. Pick an AI option and, for cloud, the hours/day; the chart finds the break-even. Reuses the planning horizon and work tier you set above.

Subscriptions for everyday/creative tiers; cloud GPU rental for the frontier-AI tier.