What AI tokens are
Tokens are the chunks of text an AI model reads and returns. A token can be a word, part of a word, punctuation, or formatting.
Token calculator
AI Token Calculator
Paste your prompt to estimate characters, words, input tokens, expected answer tokens, and monthly usage.
Calculator
Estimate your AI prompt cost
Paste a prompt, choose an example pricing profile, and estimate cost per prompt run, per day, and per month.
Quick examples
Input tokens are what you send to the AI model. Output tokens are what the model returns. API providers often price them separately.
Advanced settings
Prices are manual for now. Example: if your provider charges $2 input and $10 output per 1M tokens, enter 2 and 10.
Energy usage is a rough estimate. Actual energy depends on model, hardware, provider, datacenter efficiency, workload, and region.
Why estimates are approximate
PromptMeter uses simple character-based estimates. Real token counts vary by model, language, tokenizer, formatting, and message structure.
How token usage affects cost
AI providers often bill by input and output tokens, so larger prompts and longer answers usually increase cost.
Why output tokens matter
Output tokens are what the model returns. They can materially affect total cost, especially for long answers or repeated workflows.
How token estimates work
PromptMeter starts from character count and an approximate tokenizer profile. A rough mental model is characters divided by about 4, but code, JSON, markdown, and non-English text may differ.
Examples that change counts
A short support reply, a long context block, and a JSON/code-heavy prompt can have very different token density even when word counts look similar.
FAQ
AI token calculator FAQ
What is an AI token?
An AI token is a small unit of text processed by a model. It may represent a word, part of a word, punctuation, or spacing.
Are token estimates exact?
No. This calculator gives transparent approximations, not provider billing totals. Always check real usage with your provider.
Why do output tokens affect cost?
Most AI APIs bill generated text separately. A short prompt with a long answer can still create meaningful output-token cost.
Why can code or JSON use more tokens?
Structured text often includes punctuation, braces, keys, indentation, and repeated labels, so word count alone can understate token use.