Tokens are the fundamental units used by AI models to process text, consisting of character groups that may represent whole words, parts of words, or symbols like punctuation. Unlike simple word counts, tokenization accounts for linguistic patterns and special characters, making token counts typically 15-25% higher than word counts for English text.

Tokenization Tool Features

Visual breakdown: Shows how text is split into tokens (e.g., "ChatGPT" → ["Chat", "G", "PT"])

Count metrics: Displays parallel statistics for words, characters, and tokens

Cost estimation: Converts token counts to API cost projections using real-time pricing data

Key considerations:

Many providers charge separately for input (prompt) and output (response) tokens

Longer context windows enable processing of larger documents but may increase costs

Enterprise plans often include volume discounts for high-throughput applications

This tool helps optimize prompts and select cost-effective API solutions by providing immediate tokenization insights alongside comparative pricing data. For teams building AI applications, understanding these metrics is crucial for balancing performance requirements with budget constraints.

Tokenization Tool Features

Visual breakdown: Shows how text is split into tokens (e.g., "ChatGPT" → ["Chat", "G", "PT"])

Count metrics: Displays parallel statistics for words, characters, and tokens

Cost estimation: Converts token counts to API cost projections using real-time pricing data

Key considerations:

Many providers charge separately for input (prompt) and output (response) tokens

Longer context windows enable processing of larger documents but may increase costs

Enterprise plans often include volume discounts for high-throughput applications

AI Model Token Calculator

Calculate token usage and estimate costs for various AI models

Select Model

Manual Token Count

Toggle between text input and manual token count input

Current Pricing:

Input: $0.0025 per 1K tokens

Output: $0.01 per 1K tokens

Input Text

Tokens:0

Cost:$0.000000 USD

Output Text (Optional)

Tokens:0

Cost:$0.000000 USD

Cost Summary

Input Cost

$0.000000

(0 tokens)

Output Cost

$0.000000

(0 tokens)

Total Cost

$0.000000

Input + Output

Tokenized View

This visualization shows how the text is split into tokens using the gpt-tokenizer library. Special characters are displayed as follows: newlines (↵), tabs (→), spaces (·).

About Tokens

Tokens are the basic units that AI models process text with. Here are some key points about tokens:

A token can be as short as a single character or as long as a full word
Common words are usually a single token, while rare words may be split into multiple tokens
Spaces and punctuation count as tokens
On average, 1 token ≈ 4 characters in English text
Prices are typically charged per 1,000 tokens
This tool uses gpt-tokenizer to provide accurate token counts based on the actual tokenization algorithm
Different models may use different tokenization algorithms, but this tool provides a good approximation

Model Comparison

OpenAI GPT-4o model

Input Cost

$0.0025

Output Cost

$0.0100

OpenAI GPT-4o model

OpenAI GPT-4o mini model

Input Cost

$0.0001

Output Cost

$0.0006

OpenAI GPT-4o mini model

OpenAI o1 reasoning model

Input Cost

$0.0150

Output Cost

$0.0600

OpenAI o1 reasoning model

Meta Llama 4 Scout 17B parameter model

Input Cost

$0.0002

Output Cost

$0.0006

Meta Llama 4 Scout 17B parameter model

Meta Llama 3.3 70B parameter instruct model (fast FP8)

Input Cost

$0.0003

Output Cost

$0.0007

Meta Llama 3.3 70B parameter instruct model (fast FP8)

Meta Llama 3.1 8B parameter instruct model (fast)

Input Cost

$0.0001

Output Cost

$0.0001

Meta Llama 3.1 8B parameter instruct model (fast)

Meta Llama 3.2 1B parameter instruct model on Cloudflare

Input Cost

$0.0000

Output Cost

$0.0002

Meta Llama 3.2 1B parameter instruct model on Cloudflare

Meta Llama Guard 3 8B parameter safety model

Input Cost

$0.0005

Output Cost

$0.0000

Meta Llama Guard 3 8B parameter safety model

DeepSeek R1 model with cache optimization

Input Cost

$0.0006

($0.0001 with cache)

Output Cost

$0.0022

DeepSeek R1 model with cache optimization

Model	Input (per 1K tokens)	Output (per 1K tokens)
OpenAI GPT-4o model	$0.0025	$0.0100
OpenAI GPT-4o mini model	$0.0001	$0.0006
OpenAI o1 reasoning model	$0.0150	$0.0600
Meta Llama 4 Scout 17B parameter model	$0.0002	$0.0006
Meta Llama 3.3 70B parameter instruct model (fast FP8)	$0.0003	$0.0007
Meta Llama 3.1 8B parameter instruct model (fast)	$0.0001	$0.0001
Meta Llama 3.2 1B parameter instruct model on Cloudflare	$0.0000	$0.0002
Meta Llama Guard 3 8B parameter safety model	$0.0005	$0.0000
DeepSeek R1 model with cache optimization	$0.0006 ($0.0001 with cache)	$0.0022

Key Insights:

Llama 3.1 8B Fast offers the most cost-effective solution for basic tasks at just $0.00002 per 1K input tokens
DeepSeek R1 provides significant cost savings through caching for repeated queries
BGE Reranker Base is free but may incur API costs
GPT-4o and OpenAI o1 are premium models with higher costs but advanced capabilities