$100 LLM Training: How to Build a ChatGPT Clone in 4 Hours

How I trained a ChatGPT-like model for less than the price of a pair of sneakers, served it in a browser, and didn’t break the cloud bill. Hook: From “We Need 10M“to“Got100?” Picture this: You walk out of a budget meeting where the exec just asked for a 175-billion-parameter model and a seven-figure CapEx. On the subway ride home you open GitHub, clone a repo, launch one script, and four hours later you’re chatting with your own LLM on a public IP. No slide decks, no purchase orders—just 8 GPUs, 100 bucks, and nanochat. Below is the exact playbook, command-for-command, …