01In plain English
A token is a small piece of text, often part of a word, that a language model reads and writes in. A short English word is usually one token, and a longer one can be several. Models count their input and output in tokens.
02Why it matters when you are choosing
AI providers price usage and set limits in tokens, so they decide both what a tool costs to run and how much text it can handle at once.
03What to check
Ask the vendor
When a tool prices by credits or usage, check how that maps to tokens or words, and what happens when you hit a limit.