Token Counter

How Token Counting Works

Large Language Models process text in "tokens" — chunks of characters that represent words, parts of words, or punctuation. A general rule: 1 token ≈ 4 characters ≈ 0.75 words in English.

Why Token Counting Matters

• API costs: You're billed per token — know your cost before sending
• Context limits: Each model has a max token limit for input + output
• Prompt engineering: Optimize prompts to use fewer tokens
• Rate limits: API tiers are based on tokens per minute

Token Estimates by Model

Token counts vary slightly between tokenizers (tiktoken for OpenAI, SentencePiece for Claude, etc.). This tool provides a close estimate based on the standard ~4 chars/token ratio.