What is a token — CCA-F Exam Prep

PencilPrepPencilPrep
L1.08|What is a token
1/12
This is about you
A chat interface showing 'Hello, how are you?' typed by the user. Above each word and punctuation mark, small labels show the token breakdown: 'Hello' ',' ' how' ' are' ' you' '?' -- 6 tokens total. A small price counter in the corner ticks up with each token. Clean, modern UI.

You type 'Hello, how are you?' -- 5 words.

But Claude doesn't see 5 words. It sees 6 tokens: 'Hello', ',', ' how', ' are', ' you', '?'. Every space, every comma, every word chunk is a separate token.

Each token costs money. Input tokens: you pay for what you send. Output tokens: you pay for what Claude generates. The more tokens, the higher the bill.

Understanding tokens = understanding your bill.