LLM Token Counter
Estimate token counts and API costs for GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, and Llama models
Input Text
Token Estimates by Model
LLM Token Counter
Estimate token counts and API costs for GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, and Llama models
Features
- Estimate token counts for GPT-4, Claude Opus, Gemini Pro, and Llama 3 models
- Real-time API cost estimation based on current model pricing
- Side-by-side comparison of token counts across all major LLM providers
- Detailed text statistics including character, word, sentence, and paragraph counts
- Privacy-first: all calculations run locally in your browser with no data sent to servers
How to use
- Paste or type your text into the input area, or click 'Sample Text' to try with example content
- Select your target model from the dropdown to highlight its pricing, or view all models at once
- Review the token estimates, cost breakdowns, and text statistics in the results panel
Tips & Best Practices
- Use the sample text button to quickly see how token counting works before pasting your own content.
- Compare token counts across models to find the most cost-effective option for your use case.
- Remember that code and structured data typically produce more tokens per word than natural language text.
- For accurate budgeting, multiply the per-request cost by your expected daily or monthly request volume.
- Shorter, well-crafted prompts can significantly reduce token usage and API costs over time.
FAQ
How accurate are the token estimates?
The estimates use word-based approximation ratios calibrated for each model family. For English text, GPT-4 averages about 1.3 tokens per word, Claude about 1.2, and Llama about 1.4. These are close approximations; exact counts require each model's specific tokenizer, but our estimates are typically within 5-10% for standard English text.
Why do different models have different token counts for the same text?
Each LLM uses a different tokenizer with its own vocabulary and byte-pair encoding strategy. Models with larger vocabularies like Claude tend to produce fewer tokens for the same text because they can represent common words and phrases as single tokens. Conversely, models like Llama may split words into more subword pieces, resulting in higher token counts.
Is my text sent to any server for token counting?
No, absolutely not. All token estimation and text analysis happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text never leaves your device, making this tool completely safe for proprietary code, confidential documents, and sensitive content. No API calls are made during the counting process.
How is the API cost calculated?
The cost is calculated by multiplying the estimated token count by the model's per-token pricing rate. For example, GPT-4 charges $30 per million input tokens, so 1,000 tokens would cost $0.03. Output token pricing is typically higher than input pricing. The displayed costs reflect current published pricing from each provider.
What is the difference between input and output token costs?
Input tokens are the tokens in your prompt or message sent to the model, while output tokens are the tokens the model generates in its response. Most providers charge different rates for each, with output tokens being more expensive. Understanding both helps you accurately budget your LLM API costs for production applications.
Does this tool support non-English text?
Yes, the tool works with any language, though token-to-word ratios may differ for non-English text. Languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean typically have higher token-per-character ratios because their characters are often split into multiple tokens by most tokenizers. The estimates are most accurate for English and other Latin-script languages.
Why is Llama listed as free?
Llama is an open-source model released by Meta that can be downloaded and run locally on your own hardware at no per-token cost. While there are hosting costs for the infrastructure needed to run it, there are no API usage fees like with proprietary models such as GPT-4 or Claude. Many cloud providers also offer Llama at significantly reduced rates.