What is Tokens?
The small chunks of text that a language model reads and writes, and that usage is measured in.
In plain English
A token can be a whole short word, part of a longer word or a punctuation mark. As a rough rule of thumb for English, a token is a little under one word, so 100 tokens is around 75 words. Models have a limit on how many tokens they can handle at once (the context window), and providers usually price by tokens used.
Example
A long document might not fit in a model’s context window, so you split it or retrieve only the relevant parts.
Where you will meet it
This idea belongs to the subject area of these practice tests. We do not publish or predict real exam questions.
- NVIDIA NCA-GENL practice tests
- AWS AIF-C01 practice tests
- Google Cloud Generative AI Leader practice tests
Related terms
- Large language model (LLM): A very large neural network trained on huge amounts of text to predict and generate language.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): Letting a model look up relevant documents first and answer using them.
- Prompt engineering: Writing instructions and context so an AI model gives a more useful answer.
Test yourself
Practice tests with an explanation for every answer option, so each mistake teaches you something.
Browse practice testsAll glossary termsWritten and checked by the Be Ready Education team, last reviewed 2 November 2026. General study information, not professional advice. Providers change names and rules, so confirm details on the official documentation. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any certification vendor or exam body. Certification names, exam codes and product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify the exam a practice product prepares for. Our questions are original and are not actual exam questions.