Definition
Token-based pricing charges for AI usage by the token - roughly, pieces of text - that a model processes.
Token billing can spike unpredictably as usage or context length grows, especially with agentic workflows that loop. Demand usage dashboards, per-project budgets, and a hard spend ceiling with auto-pause before adopting it at scale.
Go deeperHow to evaluate an AI or LLM vendorRelated terms
Benchside turns token-based pricing into the exact questions, exclusions, and lock-in math for your specific vendor - your first project is free.