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Token Usage

What is a token?

~1 token ≈ 4 characters ≈ 0.75 words. A typical sentence is 15–25 tokens.

Usage in the response

Every non-streaming response includes a usage object:

{
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 18,
    "completion_tokens": 42,
    "total_tokens": 60
  }
}

Limits

Tier Daily token limit Max context
Free 30,000 tokens/day 8,192 tokens
Pro 100,000 tokens/day 8,192 tokens

Images

Each image sent in a multimodal request counts as approximately 85 tokens.

Tips to reduce token usage

  • Keep system prompts concise
  • Trim conversation history — older messages don't always need to be included
  • Set max_tokens to cap output length
  • Use stream: true to stop generation early when you have enough output