OpenAI vs Open Source Models

The debate isn't just about cost; it's about latency, privacy, and control.

Where OpenAI Wins

Complex reasoning and zero-shot extraction. If you are parsing raw 10-K filings with messy OCR, GPT-4o is currently unmatched. It's also much easier to just hit an API endpoint than manage GPU infrastructure.

Where Open Source Wins

Latency and privacy. If you are feeding real-time proprietary order flow into a model, you do not want that data leaving your VPC. A quantized Llama-3 8B model running locally on a GPU will give you sub-50ms inference times, which is impossible with cloud APIs.