Explainer
What Are Tokens in AI? Tokens, Limits and Costs Explained
What a token is, how many words it equals, why ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini count differently, and why long chats hit limits, with real counts.
October 30, 2026 · 12 min read
Topic
AI costs and pricing: what ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini really cost
Most AI is priced per token, a chunk of text a little shorter than a word. Every company charges more for the text a model writes than for the text you send, usually about five times more, so the length of the answer moves your bill more than the length of your question.
The biggest lever is the model. A company's smallest and largest models can differ by 100 times in price per token, and most everyday jobs (emails, summaries, rewrites) don't need the top one. The guides below use each company's published list prices and show the math.
Our guides
Comparison
ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini (2026): Which AI Should You Use?
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini compared this week, with plans and prices, which model each plan runs, measured results by task, and privacy settings.
October 30, 2026 · 10 min read
Guide
How to Write Better AI Prompts (2026): What Works on ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
What OpenAI, Anthropic and Google now advise, what research says about "act as," "please" and "think step by step," and two before-and-after prompts.
October 30, 2026 · 14 min read
Pricing
LLM API Pricing Comparison 2026: What a Prompt Really Costs
Every major current OpenAI, Anthropic and Google model priced per prompt and per 1,000 prompts, plus the Gemini price increases coming December 1 and January 1.
October 30, 2026 · 11 min read
Guide
How to Reduce LLM Costs: 12 Proven Ways to Pay Less for AI
Current prices and worked math for cutting AI costs on the API and on $20 chat plans: caching, batch, model routing, shorter answers and more.
October 30, 2026 · 15 min read
Free tools for this
AI cost calculator
Estimate your monthly bill on every major model.
Today's AI prices
Every current model's price per million tokens.
Prompt optimizer
See what one prompt costs, then make it cheaper.