# Glide AI Token Math **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [February 18, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129 "2025-02-18T03:24:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/1 "2025-02-18T03:24:48Z")
If I have a Generate Text column with instructions that is 80 tokens and the input ranges from 0 tokens to 1000 tokens. I have 100 rows where 1/2 have no input and the others have on average 500. Example 1 - Is the math: 100 \* 80 tokens + 50 \* 500 = 33,000 tokens Example 2 - Is it 50 \* 80 tokens + 50 \* 500 = 29,000 tokens (since the AI didn’t generate anything for the 50 rows without input). DId I use 3.3 updates (or is it rounded up to 4)? Did I use 2.9 updates (or is it rounded up to 3)? Some other answer? ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/2 "2025-02-18T03:31:12Z")
I’d be surprised if updates can be aggregated like this, and not a row-by-row calculation. ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/3 "2025-02-18T03:32:39Z")
What I mean is I think when they say they charge you 1 update per 10k tokens: - I think: Any amount of tokens from 1 to 10k cost 1 update. - I do not think: Using 1k tokens cost 0.1 updates, for example. Though, that’s just what I think. ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/4 "2025-02-18T03:33:39Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/f/e/fecc7b7d6ff3a53e77049f04977a5e0eff5c380e.png) Sometimes GenAI can’t come up with a summary because the notes were minimal. I figure those cost money. The red “Please provide message” is when I am asking GenAI to summarize notes and there are no notes. Do the instances when Glide AI fails because of no input cost updates? TIA ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/5 "2025-02-18T03:35:21Z")
> [@MattLB](#): > > The red “Please provide message” is when I am asking GenAI to summarize notes and there are no notes. I don’t think it would cost updates in these cases, and I think it should also cover cases where you go over the tokens limit for one call. However, if they charge like what I thought above, it would still be a lot for you already. ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/6 "2025-02-18T03:39:49Z")
The cost seems to be really high (compared to other AI providers) if their was a ‘floor’ for every row where it costs 1 update for 580 tokens when the going published rate is 1 update for 10,000 tokens. Since a column is by nature an aggregate total of the Generative operations across the set of rows - it seems like it might make sense to apply the published rate across the set of operations. But I obviously have no CLUE! ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/7 "2025-02-18T03:44:42Z")
![CleanShot 2025-02-18 at 10.43.30](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/3/3/338c7260a0b1318d81ed9ffd002229bc18ee2111.png) ![CleanShot 2025-02-18 at 10.43.43](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/e/2/e2ca1fa19ac9a8a4ff05f7c7f5705a3910840c63.png) Just created a brand new app, I wonder why the count is 2 and not 3, but it’s definitely not pro-rated. ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:46am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/8 "2025-02-18T03:46:15Z")
In my example of 100 rows and 50 actually GenAI success - charging 50 updates which are valued by Glides as 500,000 tokens when I have actually only used 33,000 in the worst case seems…excessive. So my use case is providing an AI summary of notes across a variety of different class objects. Everything can have notes, some objects have scores of notes, others with none. I am trialing out different prompts to get different results. Then using JSON to attach meta-data to the “note” to get even trickier/smarter. Having a floor of 1 update per 580 tokens vs the 10,000 advertised seems off. ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:47am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/9 "2025-02-18T03:47:38Z")
Yeah I think the wording there can be better, but based on how they charge updates for API query, I suspect this is the case and it seems like it is. Also I’m not sure I understand your 580 number. I think as long as you make a call, you’re guaranteed to have 1 update already, and it scales up every time you pass a 10k threshold. ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/glide-ai-token-math/80129/10 "2025-02-18T03:50:41Z")
Thanks - not the ideal outcome. The “each run uses 1 update per 10K tokens” note seems stuoendously misleading. You used about 50 tokens per “run” or say 150 tokens for 3 ‘runs’. 150 isn’t close to 30,000 tokens. The definition of ‘run’ is probably the most misleading - column v row. Thanks again