LLM Fine-tuning Budget Guide: GPU Costs, Timelines, and What to Spend

A practical guide for budgeting LLM fine-tuning operations on decentralized GPU infrastructure. Key cost estimates include LoRA fine-tuning on 7B models under $10, QLoRA runs at $15-30, and full fine-tuning scenarios ranging up to $3,000 depending on model size and parameter count. The guide covers timelines and trade-offs for different fine-tuning approaches to help teams plan AI compute spend effectively.