What a Resume Rewrite or a Subtitle Lookup Really Costs in Tokens

Language models process text as tokens: chunks that are usually a word or part of a word. In English, one token is roughly four characters or three-quarters of a word; other languages, especially those with non-Latin scripts, can use more tokens per word. Providers charge separately for input tokens (what you send, including the system prompt and any document) and output tokens (what the model writes back), and output is typically several times more expensive per token than input.

Rates differ enormously by model. The largest, most capable models cost many times more per token than the small, fast ones, and most providers have cut prices repeatedly. Because prices change, this guide does not quote numbers; check the provider's pricing page and put the current rate into the calculator.

A resume is usually 500–900 words, so 700–1,200 tokens. A job posting is similar. A prompt asking a model to rewrite the experience section against the posting therefore sends around 2,000–3,000 input tokens and receives perhaps 500–1,000 output tokens. Even at flagship-model rates that is a few cents; on a mid-tier model it is a fraction of a cent.

A subtitle-line explanation in Nativra is much smaller: the line, a little surrounding context, and a short answer: a few hundred tokens in total. A STAR answer assessment sits between the two. The point is that individual tasks are cheap, and the monthly total depends entirely on how much you use the tool.

A subscription AI tool buys tokens from a provider and resells access to you at a flat monthly price. That is a reasonable business, but it means the price you pay is set by the heaviest users the vendor needs to cover plus their margin, not by your usage. With bring-your-own-key (BYOK), you create an account with the provider, generate an API key, and the tool sends requests on your behalf: you pay the provider's rate with nothing added.

BYOK is not automatically better. It requires setting up a provider account and a payment method, and you are responsible for your own spending limits. For very heavy users on the most expensive models, a flat subscription can be cheaper. For most people doing a handful of rewrites and lookups a week, paying per use is a small fraction of a subscription. Run your own numbers in the calculator rather than taking either side's word for it.

• Set a monthly spending cap in the provider dashboard.
• Use a smaller model for lookups and a larger one for rewrites.
• Most providers offer a free tier or trial credits to start.
• Keep keys private; RYUN stores them encrypted and never logs prompts.