You want to know the cost per token. It is a reasonable question, and the digital world has made it an exhausting one. Every provider quotes a different rate, in a different denomination, measured per million, with separate prices for the tokens you send and the tokens you receive, as though a coin could cost one amount to give and another to get back.
We quote in quarters. We have always quoted in quarters.
A comparison, conducted fairly
Below is the going rate for a single token, by type. We have made every effort to be even-handed.
| Token type | Priced in | What you hold afterward |
|---|---|---|
| AI input token | Per million, fractions of a cent | Nothing |
| AI output token | Per million, several cents | Nothing |
| Crypto token | Whatever the chart says this minute | A ledger entry |
| Brass token | One quarter, historically | A brass token |
The digital tokens are, admittedly, cheaper per unit. They are also gone per unit. You are not buying a token. You are buying the brief experience of having had one.
The honest accounting
A physical token's cost per token can be computed exactly, because the token persists long enough to be measured. Across this catalog of 846 tokens, the average changes hands at $13.52, and the dearest sits at $2,398.92. Every figure refers to an object that still exists. There is no equivalent table for AI tokens, because by the time you finish reading their invoice, the tokens it describes have already been deleted.
The verdict
Cost per token only means something if the token is still around to cost it. For the forces that set these prices, read what drives token values, or step back to the field guide to tokens.
In brass we trust.