The comparison is about how many tokens you buy vs how much hardware you could buy with the same money. It's as saying "if you have rib eyes at Applebee's every

The comparison is about how many tokens you buy vs how much hardware you could buy with the same money. It's as saying "if you have rib eyes at Applebee's every day, how long until cooking your own rib eyes pays for itself". If you don't consume many of tokens, it will likely never pay for itself. If you do, though, it will have trade-offs, but you'll probably save money in the end.