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What Are AI Tokens?

Token Cost DecoderWhat are AI tokens?
Token Cost Decoder

What are AI tokens?

Tokens are the pieces of text an AI model reads and writes. Choose ChatGPT/OpenAI or Claude to see pricing rules, model options, and what 1M tokens actually means for that provider.

100 tokens≈ 75 words
1,000 tokens≈ 750 words
10,000 tokens≈ 7,500 words
100,000 tokens≈ 75,000 words
1,000,000 tokens≈ 750,000 words

What surprises people?

  • Conversation history becomes input tokens every time it is sent again.
  • System prompts cost money on every request unless caching applies.
  • Uploaded files and retrieved search results can add a lot of context tokens.
  • Output tokens often cost more than input tokens.
  • Web search, file search, images, audio, and code/tool sessions may add separate charges.
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