system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How beefy of a computer would you need to run a single-user ChatGPT node?

Could it run on an expensive laptop? A cheap laptop? A cell phone?
gpt
I recall reading that models of a similar scale to gpt-3 require 45gb+ of VRAM, which is almost double the spec of the most powerful consumer-grade GPU. It is not currently realistic to run these kinds of models on consumer hardware.

Even if you could obtain a rig capable of running it locally, you would not have access to the model used for ChatGPT as it is not publicly available.

There are some open source alternatives, but none that approach the quality of gpt-3 are fit to be run on a local machine. Large language models require specs that far exceed typical consumer hardware. You would need to host it in a cloud service (probably running you >$1k a month).