Verified October 2026

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Tokens per word in German

German averages about 1.9 tokens per word on current BPE tokenizers, which is 43% more tokens than the same count in English. Compound nouns (Rechnungserstellungsprozess) are rare in the tokenizer vocabulary, so they fragment into many pieces.

1.9Tokens per word
0.53words per token
1,900Tokens per 1,000 words
+43%vs English

German to tokens table

Words → Tokens (German, 1.9 tokens per word)
WordsTokens
100190
250475
500950
1,0001,900
2,5004,750
5,0009,500
10,00019,000
25,00047,500
50,00095,000
100,000190,000

Language comparison

LanguageTokens per wordTokens for 1,000Cost multiplier vs English
English1.331,3301.00×
Spanish1.71,7001.28×
French1.81,8001.35×
German1.91,9001.43×
Portuguese1.71,7001.28×
Russian2.42,4001.80×
Arabic2.92,9002.18×
Hindi3.23,2002.41×
Chinese1.51,5001.13×
Japanese1.81,8001.35×

Ratios are per word except Chinese and Japanese, which are per character. Comparing them directly is approximate — the honest way to budget is to tokenize a sample of your own corpus.

Cost of 1,000 words in German

Cost of 1,900 tokens (1,000 words) — USD, rates verified October 2026
#ModelProviderInputOutputBlended
1GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.00019$0.00095$0.00043
2GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.00038$0.00228$0.00095
3GPT-5.4 nanoOpenAI$0.00038$0.00237$0.00097
4Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle Gemini$0.00057$0.00475$0.00176
5DeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek$0.00057$0.00228$0.00114
6GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI$0.00143$0.00855$0.00356
7Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle Gemini$0.00143$0.00713$0.00321
8Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle Gemini$0.00143$0.00713$0.00321
9Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic$0.0019$0.0095$0.00428
10Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle Gemini$0.00237$0.019$0.00712
11Grok 4.3xAI Grok$0.00237$0.00475$0.00356
12DeepSeek V4 ProDeepSeek$0.00251$0.00752$0.00439
13Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle Gemini$0.00285$0.0171$0.00713
14GPT-5.2OpenAI$0.00332$0.0266$0.00997
15GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$0.0038$0.019$0.00855
16GPT-6 SolOpenAI$0.0038$0.019$0.00855
17GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$0.0038$0.0228$0.0095
18GPT-4.1OpenAI$0.0038$0.0152$0.0076
19Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$0.0038$0.019$0.00855
20Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview)Google Gemini$0.0038$0.0228$0.0095
21Grok 4.6xAI Grok$0.0038$0.0114$0.00665
22GPT-5.4OpenAI$0.00475$0.0285$0.0119
23Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic$0.0057$0.0285$0.0128
24GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$0.0076$0.038$0.0171
25GPT-5.5OpenAI$0.0095$0.057$0.0238
26Claude Opus 5Anthropic$0.0095$0.0475$0.0214
27GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$0.019$0.095$0.0427
28Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$0.019$0.095$0.0427

Input = 1,900 prompt tokens. Output = 1,900 generated tokens. Blended = input + 25% of output, the same weighting used across this site.

What this means for a multilingual product

If you serve German and English from the same budget, German consumes 1.4× the tokens for the same number of words. Either the price per token absorbs that, or the German product quietly runs at a lower margin. Measuring the ratio on your own text is the only reliable way to price it.

FAQ

How many tokens is 1,000 words in German?

About 1,900 tokens, using 1.9 tokens per word. That is 43% more tokens than the same count in English (1,330).

Why is German more expensive per word?

Compound nouns (Rechnungserstellungsprozess) are rare in the tokenizer vocabulary, so they fragment into many pieces. Providers bill per token, not per word, so a language that fragments into more tokens costs more for the same meaning.

How do I get an exact count for German?

Run a sample of your own text through the tokenizer of the model you will be billed on. Public ratios are averages; product names, numbers and formatting in your own data can move the result by 20% or more.

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