What Hardware Do You Need for AI Work?
June 12, 2026 · 8 min read
Most people need far less hardware than forums suggest, because most work is API calls.
API-only work
Any modern laptop is fine. You are renting compute, not running it.
Local inference
Unified memory or a 12GB+ GPU opens up capable local models.
Fine-tuning
Rent cloud GPUs by the hour; buying rarely pays back for occasional training.
Storage and RAM
Models are large. Plan for hundreds of gigabytes if you experiment locally.