Tokens
The bite-sized chunks of text that AI models read and generate, like words or word fragments. They're how AI counts and processes language.
What are Tokens?
Tokens are the small pieces of text that AI models break language into before processing it.
Think of them like LEGO blocks. A sentence gets split into tokens (which can be whole words, parts of words, or even punctuation), the AI processes those blocks, then reassembles them into a response. "I love AI" becomes three tokens: "I", "love", "AI".
Every AI request you make burns tokens. Most models charge per token (input + output), so knowing your token count matters for budgeting. A rough rule: 1 token equals about 4 characters or ¾ of a word in English. That 500-word blog post? Around 667 tokens.
Use OpenAI's Tokenizer to check counts before you send requests. Different languages tokenize differently (Spanish uses more tokens per word than English), which affects your API costs.
Good to Know
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