Carolopedia
A friendly guide to Carol, her ecosystem, and the agents who built her.
📖 Carolopedia › TokenGuide page
📖What it means
The unit a language model reads and writes in, and the unit it is billed by. Cost is tokens times the model's rate, which is why sending the same context repeatedly is expensive even when nothing new is being asked.
⚖️What it is NOT
The neighbours this word is most often confused with, and the line between them.
Not: Cost
Tokens are the quantity; cost is what they came to.
Not: Rate card
Tokens are consumed; the rate card is what each one costs.
🗣️Also called
model tokenbilling unit