Tokens Per Dollar Calculator
See how many tokens $1 buys on any model.
With the default inputs, 800,000 input tokens per $1 — 100,000 output tokens per $1 with GPT-5. Enter your own numbers below to recompute instantly; the full step-by-step math is shown under the worked example.
Results update automatically as you type.
- Input tokens / $1
- 800,000
- Output tokens / $1
- 100,000
- Input tokens for $10
- 8,000,000
- Output tokens for $10
- 1,000,000
Flip pricing around: instead of dollars per million tokens, see how many input and output tokens you actually get for $1 (or any budget) on each model. A quick way to feel how far your money goes.
How this is calculated
For each model we invert the price: tokens per dollar = 1,000,000 ÷ price per million tokens, shown separately for input and output because output is priced higher. Enter a budget and we scale it — a $2/M input rate means $1 buys 500,000 input tokens.
Is this a good result? What to do next
This reframes pricing so cheap and expensive models feel tangible. A model that buys tens of millions of tokens per dollar is throwaway-cheap for high-volume tasks; one that buys only a few hundred thousand per dollar has to justify itself on quality.
Typical planning ranges
- Budget/mini models
- tens of millions of tokens per $1
- Mid-tier models
- ~100k–300k input tokens per $1
- Frontier/reasoning models
- tens of thousands of output tokens per $1
Ranges are typical planning figures to sanity-check your result, not authoritative benchmarks. Your numbers will vary with use case, volume, and vendor.
How to improve this number
- For high-volume tasks, favour models that buy the most tokens per dollar.
- Remember output buys fewer tokens per dollar than input.
Common mistakes
- Comparing only input tokens-per-dollar when output dominates cost.
- Ignoring quality differences behind a big price gap.
When to use a different approach
To price a full workload rather than a budget, use the LLM API cost calculator or the model cost comparison.
Worked example (defaults)
With the default inputs above, here is the result:
- Input tokens / $1
- 800,000
- Output tokens / $1
- 100,000
- Input tokens for $10
- 8,000,000
- Output tokens for $10
- 1,000,000
- tokens per $1 = 1,000,000 / price per 1M tokens
Sources & references
Frequently asked questions
How is tokens-per-dollar calculated?+
It's 1,000,000 divided by the price per million tokens. If input costs $2/M, then $1 buys 500,000 input tokens.
Why are output tokens fewer per dollar?+
Output tokens are usually priced higher than input tokens, so a dollar buys fewer of them.
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