PromptSharp › Glossary › Token
What is Token?
A token is the chunk of text an AI model reads and generates — roughly a word or word-piece; usage and limits are measured in tokens.
Language models don't read characters or whole words directly — they read tokens, which are common word-pieces. A rough rule of thumb in English is about 4 characters or three-quarters of a word per token, so 100 tokens is roughly 75 words.
Tokens matter for two practical reasons: cost (API pricing is per token, input and output) and limits (the context window is measured in tokens). Long pasted documents and long answers both consume tokens, which is why concise prompts and outputs are cheaper and faster.
Frequently asked
How many words is a token?
Roughly three-quarters of a word in English, or about four characters. So 1,000 tokens is around 750 words. Punctuation and rare words can be split into multiple tokens.
Why do tokens matter to me?
They determine cost (you pay per token via APIs) and how much text fits in the context window. Longer prompts and answers use more tokens, cost more, and can hit the model's limit.
Related terms
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