AI Token Calculator
Paste any text to instantly count tokens for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Free, no signup, runs in your browser.
Estimated API cost
What are AI tokens?
Tokens are the units AI models use to process text — roughly 1 token ≈ 4 characters or ¾ of a word in English. API pricing is based on how many tokens you send (input) and receive (output).
How accurate is this calculator?
We use a cl100k-style approximation (4 chars/token) which matches GPT-4o and Claude within ~5% for typical English text. For exact counts, use the official tiktoken library.
Why does token count matter?
Context windows (how much text a model can "see") are measured in tokens. Staying under the limit avoids truncation — and estimating cost before a large API call saves money.
How many tokens is 1000 words?
Approximately 1,300–1,500 tokens for standard English prose.
AI model pricing comparison (June 2026)
All prices per 1 million tokens. Output tokens cost more than input tokens across all models.
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o | $2.50 | $10.00 | 128K |
| GPT-4o mini | $0.15 | $0.60 | 128K |
| GPT-3.5 Turbo | $0.50 | $1.50 | 16K |
| Claude Sonnet 4 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 200K |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.80 | $4.00 | 200K |
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1M |
| Gemini 2.0 Pro | $1.25 | $5.00 | 1M |
Prices change frequently. Verify at openai.com/pricing and anthropic.com/pricing.
How to use this AI token calculator
This tool gives you an instant token count estimate for any text. Here is how to get the most out of it:
- Select your model — Different models use slightly different tokenizers. Pick the model you are using or testing.
- Paste your text — Include your full prompt: system message, context, and user input. The calculator counts everything.
- Read the token count — This tells you how many tokens your input uses. Compare against the model's context window limit.
- Check the cost estimate — The cost table shows what sending this text as input would cost across all major models.
For a deeper guide on token counting strategies, see AI Token Calculator: Complete Guide.
Tips for reducing token count
- Remove unnecessary preamble such as "Please" or "I would like you to"
- Use bullet points instead of full sentences in prompts
- Summarize long documents before sending
- For code: strip comments and blank lines when they are not needed
See our full guide: How to Reduce AI API Costs.