Tokens
The small chunks of text that AI models process — roughly 3/4 of a word each.
Definition
Tokens are the basic units that AI language models use to process text. A token is roughly 3/4 of a word in English — so "hello" is one token, "chatbot" might be split into "chat" and "bot" (two tokens), and a 1,000-word document is roughly 1,300 tokens. Tokens matter because AI models have limits on how many tokens they can process at once (the context window), and most AI APIs charge based on the number of tokens used.
Understanding tokens helps you estimate costs, stay within context limits, and optimize your prompts. Shorter, more efficient prompts save money and leave more room for the AI's response.
Examples
The sentence "I love artificial intelligence" is approximately 5 tokens
A typical blog post of 2,000 words is roughly 2,600 tokens — important for cost estimation when using AI APIs
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I count tokens?
Why do tokens matter for prompts?
Build prompts using this concept
Explore our prompt library and put tokens into practice with ready-to-use templates.
Build prompts using this concept