Which LLM Token Counter Should You Use?
Use the tokenizer or counting endpoint tied to the exact model and request structure you plan to send. A raw encoding can explain text boundaries, but chat roles, tool schemas, images, documents, cached content, and provider-side formatting can change the number reported by an API.
Tiktokenizer labels every model as exact local, compatible, or API counting required. That distinction is the quickest way to decide whether the interactive browser result can be used directly or should be treated only as a comparison.
| Model or family | Support level | Authoritative counting method |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.6 | Compatible | o200k_base view; confirm complete request usage with OpenAI |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | Exact base text | Published Hugging Face tokenizer; DeepSeek usage for the final request |
| Kimi K3 | Exact base text | Published K3 vocabulary; Kimi API usage for complete XTML and multimodal requests |
| Grok 4.5 | Exact via API | xAI TokenizeText endpoint for model grok-4.5 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Exact via API | Gemini models.countTokens |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Exact via API | Anthropic Messages count_tokens |
| DeepSeek R1 | Exact base text | Published Hugging Face tokenizer |
| GPT-OSS 20B & 120B | Compatible base text | o200k_base view; Harmony wrapper excluded |
How Tiktokenizer Defines Accuracy
- Exact local tokenizer: the page loads the tokenizer artifacts published for the named open model and counts base text in the browser.
- Compatible encoding: the page uses a known base encoding that is useful for inspection but does not claim to reproduce every provider-side wrapper.
- Exact via provider API: the model owner exposes a model-aware counting or tokenization endpoint, so the page documents that endpoint and treats the browser explorer as comparison-only.
- Reference only: no verified browser tokenizer or dedicated count endpoint is available; the final API usage is the source of truth.
Why Model-Specific Token Counts Differ
Token IDs belong to a vocabulary. The same text can produce different boundaries and counts across OpenAI, DeepSeek, Kimi, Grok, Gemini, Claude, Qwen, Mistral, and Llama models. A tokenizer update can also change the amount of text represented by a fixed context window.
Structured requests introduce another layer. System instructions, prior messages, function definitions, media inputs, reasoning, and special tokens may not appear in the text editor even though they contribute to request usage. For hard limits, cost estimates, or migrations, compare the local analysis with the usage returned by the target provider.
Tiktokenizer Reference Sources
Tokenizer behavior and model limits change. Verify production decisions with current provider documentation: