Tokens · Prompt cost
AI prompt cost estimator
Shipping a new prompt without cost awareness is risky. This estimator encourages you to price prompts early using the same rates finance trusts.
Token calculation explanation
Prompt cost is the input side; total call cost adds output. Multiply by retries and orchestration steps in agents.
Words-to-token examples
Draft prompts in staging, paste into the estimator, and record tokenizer outputs for documentation.
Prompt optimization tips
Specify output shape, remove redundant examples, and prefer deterministic tests over huge few-shot lists when possible.
Token reduction techniques
Externalize few-shot examples to retrieval, version prompts, and delete stale instructions.
Context window explanation
If you add tools, remember each tool schema adds input tokens—keep schemas minimal.
Real pricing examples
A prompt costing $0.002 and a completion costing $0.008 yields $0.01 per call before traffic multipliers.
Prompt archetypes
| Scenario | Prompt tokens | Output tokens | Model (est.) | Cost / request |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microcopy rewrite | 250 | 120 | GPT-4o mini | $0.0001 |
| JSON extractor | 900 | 200 | GPT-4o | $0.0043 |
| Agent planner | 3500 | 800 | Claude 3.5 Haiku | $0.0060 |
Figures use rates from config/models.php; confirm against your provider before billing decisions.
FAQ: Prompt costs
Short answers mirror the structured data on this page for search engines and readers.
- Should product managers own prompt cost?
- They should see estimates—engineering implements measurement, finance validates totals.
- How do I version prompts safely?
- Store prompts in git, tag releases, and log version IDs with token metrics.
- What about A/B tests?
- Short tests can spike spend—cap participant counts and watch outliers.
- Can I estimate multilingual prompts?
- Yes—measure each language; do not assume English ratios.