A million tokens, measured in

Books

The most intuitive yardstick there is. A million tokens holds about eight novels, 96% of the Bible, the full Lord of the Rings with room for a reread, but only 42% of Game of Thrones.

β‰ˆ 69% of Harry Potter of the complete 7-book series, drawn to scale

the 7 books β€” filled part = 1M tokens

β‰ˆ 69% of Harry Potter

of the complete 7-book series

The full Harry Potter series is 1,084,170 words β€” about 1.45 million tokens. A million tokens gets you past Order of the Phoenix and into the early chapters of Half-Blood Prince.

basis: Series total 1,084,170 words

β‰ˆ 1.3 Γ— War and Peace copies of War and Peace, drawn to scale

2 copies β€” filled part = 1M tokens

β‰ˆ 1.3 Γ— War and Peace

copies of War and Peace

Tolstoy’s epic is about 587,000 words in English translation (~780,000 tokens). A million tokens covers it with room for a second read of the first third.

basis: 587,000 words per copy

β‰ˆ 96% of the Bible of the King James Bible, drawn to scale

1 Bible β€” filled part = 1M tokens

β‰ˆ 96% of the Bible

of the King James Bible

The King James Bible is about 783,000 words (~1.04 million tokens). A million tokens gets you through almost the entire text β€” falling just short at Revelation.

basis: 783,137 words (KJV)

β‰ˆ 42% of Game of Thrones of the 5 published ASOIAF books, drawn to scale

the 5 books β€” filled part = 1M tokens

β‰ˆ 42% of Game of Thrones

of the 5 published ASOIAF books

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is about 1,770,000 words (~2.36 million tokens). A million tokens covers the first two books and about 30% of A Storm of Swords.

basis: 1,770,000 words (5 published books)

Books are the most intuitive yardstick for token scale. Most people have held a Harry Potter novel or seen War and Peace on a shelf β€” so saying "a million tokens is eight novels" lands instantly. For developers building retrieval systems, these comparisons also answer a practical question: can your model's context window hold the entire reference text, or do you need to chunk and retrieve?

Common questions about books

What would this cost?

Everything on this page is exactly one million tokens. So the price of having a model read β€” or write β€” all of it is simply each model's per-million rate. Updated 2026-07-28.

ModelRead all of it (input)Write all of it (output)
GPT-5.6 Sol$5$30
GPT-5.5 Pro$30$180
Claude Fable 5$10$50
GPT-5.6 Terra$2.50$15
GPT-5.5$5$30
Claude Opus 4.8$5$25
Claude Sonnet 5$2$10
Gemini 3.1 Pro$2$12
Gemini 3.5 Flash$1.50$9
GPT-5.6 Luna$1$6
Claude Haiku 4.5$1$5
Gemini 3 Flash$0.50$3

From $0.50 to $180 for the same million tokens. Try your own budget in the calculator β†’

Frequently asked questions

How many books fit in 1 million tokens?
About 8 average-length novels (90,000 words each), or 69% of the complete Harry Potter series.
How many tokens is Harry Potter?
The complete Harry Potter series is 1,084,170 words, which is approximately 1.45 million tokens.
How many tokens is War and Peace?
War and Peace is about 587,000 words in English translation, or roughly 780,000 tokens. One million tokens covers 1.3 copies.
How many tokens is Lord of the Rings?
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy is about 481,000 words or ~641,000 tokens. One million tokens covers the full trilogy 1.56 times.
How many tokens is the Bible?
The King James Bible is about 783,000 words or ~1.04 million tokens. One million tokens covers 96% of the entire text.
How many tokens is Game of Thrones?
The 5 published ASOIAF books total about 1,770,000 words or ~2.36 million tokens. One million tokens covers 42% β€” roughly the first two and a half books.

The same million tokens, measured differently

Or start over with the full picture β€” scale, prices, and the budget calculator.

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