What are tokens in AI models?

Tokens are chunks of text models process and bill. In English, one token is often about four characters, but exact tokenization differs by provider.

Why should I calculate token costs?

Providers charge per token. Estimating before you ship helps you pick models, set budgets, and avoid invoice surprises for chatbots, RAG, and agents.

Can I compare multiple models side by side?

Yes. The homepage calculator shows one card per provider. Change the model in each card and sort by cheapest or most expensive.

Are these official live prices?

No. CentsPerToken uses approximate static planning rates. Always confirm on each provider’s official pricing page before production budgeting.

Is my prompt stored on a server?

No. Counting and cost math run in your browser. We do not require an account to use the calculators.

CentsPerToken — AI API Cost Calculators

The product

AI token cost calculator

Paste a prompt to count characters, words, and tokens—then compare providers instantly. Everything runs in your browser.

Prompt / context

Characters: 222
Words: 36
Input tokens: 54
Output tokens: 11

OpenAI / Grok / Perplexity cards use exact BPE (Planning estimate). Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek use planning estimates — each card shows its own count.

Override output tokensCached input share %Reasoning share of output %Used when a model bills reasoning tokens

Requests / dayDays / monthMonthly budget ($)

Monthly requests30,000

Fits on lowest model46,382,189 req

Budget used0%

Include Anthropic-style cache write for full prompt

Planning insights

Actionable reads from this prompt + volume—not financial advice.

Routing to DeepSeek V4 Flash instead of Claude Sonnet 4.5 saves $0.000322 per request ($9.67/mo at your volume).
Try raising cached input share for RAG or system-prompt heavy traffic—cache rates can cut input spend when providers support it.
Input-heavy workload: prefer models with cheaper input or higher cache discounts, and trim retrieved context.
At 30,000 requests/mo, check batch pricing in the volume planner when latency allows.
At $500.00/mo you can afford ~46,382,189 requests on DeepSeek V4 Flash (46,352,189 headroom vs current volume).

Special

Route & runway playbook

Split traffic between your cheapest and most expensive selected models, then see monthly savings and how many days your budget lasts—share the scenario without pasting your prompt.

Economy70% → DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek · $0.000011/req

Premium30% → Claude Sonnet 4.5

Anthropic · $0.000333/req

Route 70% to economy · 30% to premium

Blended / request$0.000107

Blended / month$3.22

Saved vs all-premium$6.77(68%)

Budget runway4,653 days

At 1,000 req/day on this mix

DeepSeek

Lowest

55 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000008
Cached input: $0.00
Output: $0.000003
Daily: $0.0108
Monthly: $0.3234
$ / 1k tok: $0.000163
Budget fit: 46,382,189
Per request: $0.000011

Google

+303%

53 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000016
Cached input: $0.00
Output: $0.000027
Daily: $0.0434
Monthly: $1.30
$ / 1k tok: $0.000678
Budget fit: 11,520,737
Per request: $0.000043

$0.000033 more per request than the lowest option ($0.9786/mo).

Perplexity

+503%

54 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000054
Cached input: —
Output: $0.000011
Daily: $0.065
Monthly: $1.95
$ / 1k tok: $0.001
Budget fit: 7,692,307
Per request: $0.000065

$0.000054 more per request than the lowest option ($1.63/mo).

OpenAI

+1547%

54 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000068
Cached input: $0.00
Output: $0.00011
Daily: $0.1775
Monthly: $5.32
$ / 1k tok: $0.002731
Budget fit: 2,816,901
Per request: $0.000177

$0.000167 more per request than the lowest option ($5.00/mo).

xAI (Grok)

+2933%

54 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000162
Cached input: $0.00
Output: $0.000165
Daily: $0.327
Monthly: $9.81
$ / 1k tok: $0.005031
Budget fit: 1,529,051
Per request: $0.000327

$0.000316 more per request than the lowest option ($9.49/mo).

Anthropic

+2989%

56 in · 11 out

Planning estimate

Model

Input: $0.000168
Cached input: $0.00
Cache write (5m): off
Output: $0.000165
Daily: $0.333
Monthly: $9.99
$ / 1k tok: $0.00497
Budget fit: 1,501,501
Per request: $0.000333

$0.000322 more per request than the lowest option ($9.67/mo).

Uncached input shown as 54 tokens at the OpenAI-style baseline; each card re-estimates with its family. Volume figures multiply the per-request total. Rates updated 2026-07-31. Approximate static list prices for planning only. Always verify against each provider’s official pricing page before production budgeting.

Start with your question

What do you need to figure out?

Pick a goal and jump into the matching tools—without scanning the full library first.

Estimate AI costs

What will this cost me?

Token, API, and multimodal spend estimators.

Browse tools

Compare & choose

Which option is cheaper?

Model routing, cheapest-fit, batch, and local vs cloud.

Browse tools

Cut the bill

How do I spend less?

Caching, compression, context, and retry waste.

Browse tools

Plan budget & margin

Does this business work?

Monthly budgets, seats, margins, and unit economics.

Browse tools

Scale in production

Will it hold at volume?

Agents, rate limits, latency, evals, and fine-tuning.

Browse tools

Living prices

Current flagship API prices

Approximate list prices per 1M tokens · catalog stamped 2026-07-31. Open a model page for scenario math.

Browse models Compare models

OpenAI

GPT-5.5

Newest OpenAI flagship planning tier for high-quality generation.

Input: $5.00
Cached: $0.50
Output: $30.00

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.8

Anthropic flagship for complex reasoning and long agents.

Input: $5.00
Cached: $0.50
Output: $25.00

Also supports cache-write rates in the calculator.

Google

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Google’s fast frontier Flash tier for agentic workflows.

Input: $1.50
Cached: $0.15
Output: $9.00

xAI

Grok 4.3

xAI flagship with strong agentic tool-calling positioning.

Input: $1.25
Cached: —
Output: $2.50

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Efficiency-focused model for high-volume inference.

Input: $0.14
Cached: $0.014
Output: $0.28

Perplexity

Sonar Deep Research

Research-oriented Sonar tier with reasoning line items.

Input: $2.00
Cached: —
Output: $8.00

Reasoning tokens priced separately when enabled.

Showcase prices are per 1M tokens and match CentsPerToken catalog planning figures—not negotiated or live billed rates.

Methodology

Why trust these numbers

CentsPerToken is built for planning honesty—not vanity dashboards or invented usage counts.

Where prices come from

Planning rates track public provider price pages and carry a last-updated stamp on every calculator.

Honest tokenization

OpenAI-family models use exact BPE counts where we can. Other families use clearly labeled planning estimates.

What we don’t claim

List prices exclude negotiated discounts, commitments, and taxes. Confirm on the provider before production budgets.

Stays in your browser

Prompts and CSV uploads are processed locally. No account wall, and nothing is sent to our servers to estimate.

Learning Center

Guides worth reading first

Short explainers on tokens, budgeting, and cost levers—without a documentation wall.

Visit Learning Center

Guide

Common questions

Quick answers about tokens, pricing accuracy, and how CentsPerToken works.

It is a free browser tool that estimates characters, words, tokens, and API spend across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Grok.

Calculate AI API costs before you ship

AI token cost calculator

Expected output size

Volume & budget

Planning insights

Route & runway playbook

Cost by provider

DeepSeek

Google

Perplexity

OpenAI

xAI (Grok)

Anthropic

What do you need to figure out?

Estimate AI costs

Compare & choose

Cut the bill

Plan budget & margin

Scale in production

Current flagship API prices

GPT-5.5

Claude Opus 4.8

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Grok 4.3

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Sonar Deep Research

Why trust these numbers

Where prices come from

Honest tokenization

What we don’t claim

Stays in your browser

Guides worth reading first

How to estimate LLM API costs before you ship

What is a token in LLM APIs?

How prompt caching reduces LLM API costs

Common questions

Calculate AI API costs before you ship

AI token cost calculator

Expected output size

Volume & budget

Planning insights

Route & runway playbook

Cost by provider

DeepSeek

Google

Perplexity

OpenAI

xAI (Grok)

Anthropic

What do you need to figure out?

Estimate AI costs

Compare & choose

Cut the bill

Plan budget & margin

Scale in production

Current flagship API prices

Why trust these numbers

Where prices come from

Honest tokenization

What we don’t claim

Stays in your browser

Guides worth reading first

Get notified when AI providers change pricing

Common questions

?What is the AI token cost calculator?−

?What are tokens in AI models?+

?Why should I calculate token costs?+

?Can I compare multiple models side by side?+

?Are these official live prices?+

?Is my prompt stored on a server?+