AI Setup Builder
Tell us your needs and we'll find the right AI setup.
How AI Setup Builder works
You answer up to 8 questions. The tool follows one fixed decision tree and returns a model, a way to pay for it or run it, and the tool to use it with. Your answers stay on this page and are not sent anywhere.
The decision tree
How models are chosen
- A model enters the ranking only if a person in Europe can use it today. Price plays no part.
- Independent benchmark boards decide. Scores reported by the vendors never decide a pick.
- Best available is the model with the best position across the boards for that job. Strong is the next one. Good enough is the best of the lightest models.
- High confidence means two or more boards agree. Medium means one board, or boards that split. Low means no independent board.
The boards we use, read on 5 November 2026. Where a board's own page could not be read, the name shows the mirror we used.
- Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
- Artificial Analysis open-source models
- AA-Omniscience
- GDPval-AA
- Artificial Analysis text-to-video
- Arena Text, on BenchLeader
- Arena Creative Writing, on BenchLeader
- Agent Arena, on DataLearner
- Arena text-to-image, on Sophon
- Terminal-Bench 4.0, on BenchLM
- LiveBench Coding, on llmrun
How plans are chosen
The tool keeps the plans that include the model, then takes the cheapest one with enough capacity for your use. Vendors publish no fixed limits, so that capacity match is our judgement. For coding and agents, Opus 5.5 moves up one plan for daily and all-day use. If you already pay for a plan that fits, the tool tells you to keep it. Pay per use goes through OpenRouter, or the vendor's API for images and video.
How hardware is chosen
Each home model sets a memory target. A model fits when its file takes at most 85% of the memory. If your device meets the target, you buy nothing. If not, your answer to "Where should it run?" sets the machine. On a Mixed route, home hardware can sit one quality level lower, because the cloud handles the hardest work.
Every pick
On your result
- Show me cheaper gives a lower-cost option, what you lose and the 3-year cost.
- Add another job looks for one plan that covers both jobs and compares it with the cheapest pair.
- Prefer a vendor shows the closest option from Claude, ChatGPT or Google.
The 3-year cost adds 36 monthly payments, the purchase price and electricity at 2 hours a day and €0.29 per kWh.
What to keep in mind
- This is a recommendation. Check the price and the plan before you buy.
- Each result lists its sources and their dates, and flags prices older than 45 days.
- Used graphics card prices are converted from US sales, so European prices can differ.
- We take no sponsors or affiliate links. Claude helped prepare this ranking, and Anthropic has several picks, so independent boards decide and the evidence is listed.