The Average Call

Token problems: 12 of 20

Token problems: the workbook

1. Count the Tokens

2. Subword Splitting

3. Punctuation Counts

4. Tokens per Word

5. Will It Fit?

6. The Price of a Call

7. Two Kinds of Token

8. Input or Output?

9. The Two-Part Bill

10. End-to-End Call Cost

11. Comparing Three Calls

12. The Average Call

13. The System Prompt

14. The System Prompt Tax

15. Calls in a Budget

16. Tokens on a Budget

17. How Long Will It Take?

18. The Split Matters

19. Pricing per Million Tokens

20. Tokens from the Bill

How do you estimate total usage when every call is different? Average a sample of recent calls to get a representative size, then multiply by the expected volume. Plans and budgets scale from the average, not from any single call. Agents running at production scale need this estimate to set daily budgets and catch cost spikes early.

Problem

An AI agent handled three sample calls of 400, 500, and 600 tokens. It will run 200 calls today. Using the average call size, estimate the total tokens for the day.

Average the sample calls

Multiply the average by the day's calls

Practice 1

An AI agent handled three sample calls of 300, 600, and 900 tokens. It will run 100 calls today. Using the average call size, estimate the total tokens for the day.

Average the sample calls

Multiply the average by the day's calls

Practice 2

An AI agent handled four sample calls of 200, 400, 400, and 600 tokens. It will run 500 calls today. Using the average call size, estimate the total tokens for the day.

Average the sample calls

Multiply the average by the day's calls

---

Next:
13. The System Prompt