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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryAI in MarketingToken

AI in Marketing

Token

The small chunk of text, often part of a word, that AI models read and generate; usage, limits, and pricing are measured in tokens.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

A token is a small chunk of text, often part of a word, that AI models read and generate. Models break input and output into tokens, and usage limits, context window sizes, and pricing are measured in them. Understanding tokens helps teams estimate the cost of AI features and the length of content models can handle.