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What Is a Token? The Concept That Unlocks Everything About LLMs

This story is from 2026-09-17. It is preserved in the archive; the latest stories are on the live feed.

When I first heard the word "token" in the context of LLMs, I assumed it meant words. Made sense — "I love cricket" is 3 words, so 3 tokens, right? Wrong. And that misunderstanding cost me real money before I figured out why. What is a token — really Let's start from the beginning. A model doesn't…

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  1. 2026-09-17 14:30 · DEV Community — AI
    What Is a Token? The Concept That Unlocks Everything About LLMs

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