AI Token Counter: A Rough Guide to Token Length
Token limits shape what you can paste into an AI chat. A quick heuristic estimate tells you whether a text is short, medium, or likely to overflow.
What is the AI Token Counter?
Paste any text and the tool counts words and characters, then gives a heuristic token estimate. Token counts here are estimates only: real tokenisers split words differently, so treat the number as a rough guide for length, not an exact billing figure.
How to use it
- Paste your text.
- Pick a model family.
- Click Count Tokens and use the estimate as a rough length guide.
Worked example
The sample sentence has 5 words, so the general heuristic estimates 7 tokens (5 times 1.33, rounded up).
How many tokens is a five-word sentence?
Roughly 7 tokens on the general heuristic used here, which allows about 1.33 tokens per word, though real tokenisers vary.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an exact token count?
No. It is a heuristic estimate. Real tokenisers split words and punctuation differently, so counts will differ.
Why does code estimate higher?
Code has more symbols and short fragments, so it tends to split into more tokens per word than plain prose.