Panel Haus Can you run AI image generation on your own GPU?
Yes. Run ComfyUI locally, bridge it to Panel Haus with a free Cloudflare tunnel, and generate on your own hardware instead of ours. You need an NVIDIA card with at least 6GB of VRAM.
· Panel Haus
Yes. If you have an NVIDIA card with at least 6GB of VRAM, you can run the image generation on your own machine instead of ours. It is called Neural Forge, the generation happens entirely on your hardware, and it does not consume ink.
The setup is three things: install ComfyUI locally, open a tunnel so the browser can reach it, and point Panel Haus at the tunnel. There is a one-click installer for the first part.
What is actually happening
ComfyUI is a local image generation server. It runs on your machine, by default on port 8188, and it does the same job a hosted model does: you send it a prompt and settings, it sends back an image.
Panel Haus talks to it the same way it talks to a hosted model. Same requests, same place in the editor, same result. The only difference is where the computation happens and who pays the electricity bill.
That is the whole architecture. It is worth stating plainly, because "run AI locally" usually sounds more exotic than it is.
The one non-obvious part
Panel Haus runs on HTTPS. Your local ComfyUI runs on HTTP, on your own machine. Browsers will not let a secure page talk to an insecure local server, and no amount of configuration in the app changes that. It is a browser security rule, not a limitation anyone chose.
The fix is a Cloudflare Tunnel: one free command that gives your local server a public HTTPS address. Panel Haus connects to that address, which satisfies the browser, while the traffic still ends up at your machine.
This is the step people get stuck on, and it is worth understanding rather than following blindly, because when something breaks later it is almost always the tunnel rather than the model.
What you need
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA with 6GB VRAM | NVIDIA with 12GB or more, such as an RTX 3060 or 4070 |
The 6GB floor is real rather than cautious. Below it you will spend your time fighting out-of-memory errors instead of making comics, which is a worse experience than simply using the hosted generation.
Whether it is worth it
This depends on what kind of person you are, and it is worth being honest rather than selling it.
It is worth it if you generate a lot, you already own the hardware, you want to run models the hosted option does not offer, or you want your work to never leave your machine. The generation is then unlimited and costs nothing per image.
It is not worth it if you make a comic occasionally. The setup is time you spend once, the tunnel is one more thing that can be down when you sit down to work, and hosted generation costs a few dollars a comic. If you make two comics a month, paying for hosted generation is cheaper than the electricity, never mind your time.
The people who benefit most are the ones who were already going to have ComfyUI installed. If that describes you, this connects it to a comic editor. If it does not, you probably want the hosted path.
What it does not change
Ink is what you spend on hosted generation. Running your own GPU means the generation does not go through us, so it does not consume ink. Everything else in the app works identically, and the comic you produce is the same comic.
It also does not make you a prompt engineer. Local generation gives you more control and more knobs, which is exactly as much of a benefit as you have the patience to use.
Getting set up
Four pages cover it end to end, in the order you need them:
- Neural Forge, the overview and requirements
- 1-Click ComfyUI Install
- Cloudflare Tunnel Setup, the step above
- Troubleshooting, worth skimming before you need it
If it stops working a week later, start at the tunnel. It is almost always the tunnel.