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Personal Productivity in the Age of AI

Module 2 — The AI Toolkit, in Plain English

Lesson 7: Local vs Cloud, Tokens, and Cost Discipline

Last updated: 2026-05-12

Where the work actually executes, how much each interaction costs, and which model is doing the work are three decisions usually made by accident. A small amount of deliberate routing recovers the largest single source of silent waste in a productivity stack.

Lesson 7: Local vs Cloud, Tokens, and Cost Discipline

Blackboard

Cheap routing beats clever prompting

13 min
Pause and Think

If asked to estimate roughly what your AI usage cost over the last month, could you? If not, which is the more likely failure — paying too much, or paying too little for the work it could be doing?

Practice Question

Question

Does not count for certificate
Choose one answer, use the hint if needed, then check your answer.
Use the hint before checking if you need a nudge.