DictionaryToken Economics
Output Tokens
The words the AI writes back to you, which usually cost several times more than what you send.
Definition
Tokens generated by the model in response. Output tokens typically cost 5-8x more than input tokens (5x on current Claude models). Controlling output length through instructions and max_tokens is a key cost optimization lever.
Example
On Claude Opus 5.5, 10K output tokens cost $0.20 at $20/MTok, while 10K input tokens cost $0.04 at $4/MTok.