DictionaryToken Economics
Input Tokens
Everything you send to the AI, including instructions, history, and files, counted in tokens.
Definition
Tokens sent to the model in a request, including system prompts, conversation history, and user messages. Input tokens are typically cheaper than output tokens and form the bulk of context window usage.
Example
A request with a 2K system prompt, 30K of chat history, and a 5K file uses about 37K input tokens.