Parameter counts are not a quality score. They are a size. Size correlates with capability the way height correlates with basketball skill; related, not decisive. - 7B: the laptop class. Fast, private, good for writing, chat, lighter coding help. - 13B: the desktop class. Noticeably more capable, still fine on one good GPU. - 70B: the serious-hardware class. Strong across the board, wants a high-end card or several. - A well-trained small model today beats a sloppy big one on specific tasks. Training quality, data, fine-tuning matter enormously. - Shop by task fit first, then check the count fits your hardware. That order avoids both classics: the giant you cannot run, the small you wrongly dismissed. Skip the DIY? PrivateLLM deploy sets up your private LLM on AWS for $50 plus usage. Your data never leaves your cloud.