# LLM Token Count Estimator & Cost Projector

> LLM Token Count Estimator & Cost Projector is a paid API for AI agents from api.24klabs.ai, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Estimates token count for a given text using heuristic (character- and word-based) methods and projects approximate input costs across LLM models for budget planning.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://api.24klabs.ai/api/v1/llm-token-estimate
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/llm-token-count-estimator-cost-projector-93bf62aa
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_4LU5OCn63xExJXSgi36ij

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability llm-token-count-estimator-cost-projector-93bf62aa -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Give me a heuristic token estimate and per-model cost projection for this text: 'Large language models have transformed the way developers build applications, enabling natural language interfaces at scale.' — I want to see what it would cost to use as input on GPT-4 and Claude.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need a fast, cheap heuristic approximation of token counts and cost projections without running a full BPE tokenizer locally. Ideal for budgeting and pre-flight checks in agent pipelines, especially when exact tokenization is not critical and speed matters. Not suitable when exact token counts are required for context window enforcement — use an official tokenizer library for that.

## Known failure modes

- Empty or missing text input returns validation error
- Extremely large texts may time out or be truncated
- Estimates may diverge significantly from actual BPE tokenizer counts for non-English or code-heavy text
- Unknown model name in cost projection may return null or default pricing
- Malformed request body returns 400-level error

## How this service works

Heuristic token-count estimate for a text (character- and word-based) plus an illustrative per-model input-cost projection for budgeting. Not an exact BPE tokenizer.

## Output

Returns a heuristic token count estimate (character- and word-based approximation, not exact BPE), along with illustrative per-model input cost projections in USD/USDC for budgeting purposes. Note: results are approximations and may differ from actual tokenizer output.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "text": {
   "type": "string"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "chars": 66,
  "words": 11,
  "costs_usd": {
   "claude-sonnet": 0.000042
  },
  "tokens_estimate": 14
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/llm-token-count-estimator-cost-projector-93bf62aa/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.24klabs.ai](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.24klabs.ai/llms.txt)