AI Token Counter

A token is the fundamental unit that AI language models use to process text. When you send a prompt to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other large language model, your text is first broken down into tokens before the model can understand and respond to it. Understanding token counts is essential for managing API costs and staying within context window limits.

Token counts directly determine how much you pay when using AI APIs. Every major provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta — charges based on the number of tokens processed. Input tokens (your prompt) and output tokens (the model's response) are typically priced differently, with output tokens costing more. For example, Claude Sonnet 4 charges $3.00 USD per million input tokens but $15.00 USD per million output tokens.

Context windows are another critical consideration. Each model has a maximum number of tokens it can process in a single conversation. GPT-4o supports 128,000 tokens, Claude models support 200,000 tokens, and Gemini 1.5 Pro leads with 2 million tokens. If your text exceeds the context window, you need to split it or use a model with a larger window.

Different tokenizers produce different counts for the same text. English text typically averages 1 token per 4 characters with GPT models and 1 token per 3.5 characters with Claude. Non-English text, code, and special characters often produce higher token counts. This is why comparing across models matters — the cheapest model per token is not always the cheapest for your specific text.

For Australian developers and businesses using AI APIs, costs are typically billed in USD. At the current exchange rate of approximately 1 USD = 1.55 AUD, it pays to compare carefully. Our ChatGPT Cost Calculator and LLM Model Price Comparison tools can help you find the best value for your use case.

Use this free AI token counter to paste any text and instantly see how many tokens it uses across every major model. No signup required, no API key needed — just paste and count.