Is a 128GB MacBook Pro worth it for local AI coding?

An iOS developer is evaluating the long-term viability of purchasing a high-spec 128GB MacBook Pro to run local Large Language Models (LLMs) for coding. This hardware investment is being considered as a potential offline alternative to cloud-based AI assistants like Claude and Cursor. As cloud-based AI subscription costs and API rates fluctuate, developers are exploring local hardware setups to ensure privacy, offline availability, and long-term cost predictability. Understanding the trade-offs between local inference on unified memory and cloud APIs is crucial for developers planning multi-year hardware investments. A 128GB MacBook Pro offers unified memory that can accommodate larger quantized LLMs, but local execution may still be slower compared to cloud-hosted frontier models. The developer notes that while the upfront cost of 128GB RAM is high, it could be financially justified if it offsets cloud subscription costs over a five-year lifespan.