List prices are per million tokens
Providers usually quote USD per 1M input tokens and per 1M output tokens. A headline “$X / 1M” is incomplete unless you know which side of the meter it refers to.
Mix matters more than the round number
One million tokens that are mostly cheap cached input costs far less than one million tokens of expensive output. Always define the mix before comparing models.
Budget the other direction too
Finance teams often ask how many tokens $100 buys. Invert the 1M cost to answer that quickly for each model.
FAQ
Is 1M tokens the same as 1M words?
No. In English, roughly four characters or about 0.75 words per token is a common rule of thumb—not exact.