No-Markup AI Hardware: How Buying a Local AI Machine Through Us Works
We never mark up hardware. You pay Apple's retail price for the machine, either directly or through us at cost, and you pay us separately for the work. This post explains why we price it that way and walks through every step from first call to a machine your team logs into.
Two ways buyers overpay
Markup. When the person recommending a computer also earns a margin on selling it, the recommendation leans toward the bigger invoice. We remove that incentive. Our fee is the same whichever machine you buy.
Oversizing. A configuration far larger than the work needs costs real money even at a fair price. Memory decides which AI models a Mac can run, so the useful question is the smallest machine that holds the model your work needs, with one tier of headroom. Our sizing guide shows the arithmetic. The model guide covers which model fits which work.
A recommendation from someone with no stake in the hardware answers both. That is the whole design.
Step 1: a free 15-minute intro call
"Book a call" on this site means a free 15-minute intro call. Describe the work you want AI to do. We tell you whether local AI makes sense for it at all, and roughly which tier of machine it points to.
Sometimes the answer is no. If your use is light or occasional, a cloud subscription is often the better instrument, and we will say so. If what you want is marketing done for you rather than a machine, our sister service MOCO™ handles that.
Step 2: the $500 Assessment, waived with any setup
When the intro call shows a machine is worth scoping properly, the Assessment follows. It is scheduled after the intro call and covers:
- A 45-minute assessment of your work, your documents and who will use the machine.
- A hardware recommendation: the specific configuration, at Apple retail.
- Framework guidance: which models and software fit the work.
The Assessment costs $500. If you go ahead with any setup, the fee is waived.
Step 3: the hardware, at Apple retail
You buy the machine at Apple retail, or we buy it on your behalf at cost. Either way the price is Apple's. Apple's lead times vary by configuration. We confirm current ship dates on your free call.
Mac prices moved twice in 2026. A global memory shortage pushed Apple to raise prices across several Mac lines on June 25, 2026, and the lineup changed in September. Starting prices as of October 2026 (Apple US retail):
| Machine | Starts at |
|---|---|
| Mac mini M6 | $899 (16 GB) |
| Mac mini M5 Pro | $1,699 (15-core) or $1,899 (18-core), 24 GB |
| Mac Studio M5 Max | $2,499 |
| Mac Studio M5 Ultra | $5,499 (96 GB) |
Higher-memory configurations cost more, and we quote them from Apple's configurator at the time of order. The sizing guide lists the full lineup.
Step 4: setup, priced by the size of the deployment
Setup prices cover the work: design, configuration, installation and handoff. Hardware is always a separate line.
- Single setup, $5,000. One Mac, one team. The full stack (Ollama, a framework, a web interface, Tailscale for secure remote access), models chosen for your hardware, security hardening, and a 30-minute handoff call. Installed, tested, and handed off in one on-site day once the hardware arrives.
- Cluster, from $20,000. Two to five machines. Everything in the single setup, plus model placement across devices, request routing and shared access, monitoring, backup and a recovery plan. Scoped on your free call. Apple markets the Mac mini M5 Pro for clustering over Thunderbolt 5. The Mac mini M6 has Thunderbolt 4 and is not a cluster node.
- Room build, from $50,000. Six machines and up. Everything in the cluster, plus power, thermal and network planning, racking and physical installation, redundancy and failover. Scoped on your free call.
Your total upfront cost is two lines: the hardware and the setup. For example, a single setup on a Mac mini M5 Pro starts at $1,699 for the hardware plus $5,000 for the setup, $6,699 in total as of October 2026. A larger configuration raises the hardware line only.
What login-ready means
On handoff day you log in and the system is already there. The models are installed and tested on your hardware, and the defaults are set. You never touch a terminal.
That matters because most of the difficulty in local AI is configuration, not hardware. Choosing a model, matching it to memory, sizing the context window so long documents are not silently cut off, and wiring the assistant to your files all have wrong answers. Each one gets decided and tested before handoff.
Login-ready does not mean zero learning. Your team will spend time in the first weeks finding what to ask and where the assistant fits into the day.
After setup, if you want it
Ongoing work is optional and priced separately:
- Care, from $60 a month. Updates, model refreshes, security patches, monitoring and backup checks.
- Steady improvement, from $500 a month. Everything in Care, plus a set amount of agent and skill work every month.
- Build flex, $2,500 per block. A block of time drawn down as you use it, good for twelve months.
Mac first
We install and support Mac. A Mac holds the most model memory per box, up to 256 GB as of October 2026 and 512 GB from late October. It is quiet, small, and needs little maintenance.
It is not always the right machine. If the work needs CUDA, the fastest speed on models up to 96 GB, the lowest cost per gigabyte at 128 GB, or Windows, we say so, advise honestly on the alternatives, and quote non-Mac installs case by case. Mac vs NVIDIA vs AMD for Local AI compares the platforms.
Key takeaways
- Hardware is never marked up. You pay Apple retail, directly or through us at cost, and our fee does not change with the machine you choose.
- The sequence is a free 15-minute call, then the $500 Assessment (waived with any setup), then hardware and setup.
- Upfront cost is two lines: hardware at Apple retail plus the setup tier (Single setup $5,000, Cluster from $20,000, Room build from $50,000).
- Login-ready means the models are installed and tested before handoff. You never touch a terminal.
- Mac first, not Mac only. We advise on other platforms and quote non-Mac installs case by case.
Book a free 15-minute call and describe your work. If a machine makes sense, the Assessment comes next. Full pricing is on our pricing section.