tokenomical
Lexicon ex Machina
tokenomical /ˌtoʊ.kəˈnɒm.ɪ.kəl/ adj.
adjective
Describing pricing that appears favorable per-unit while producing ruinous invoices at scale. “The tokenomical rate of $0.002 per 1K tokens seemed cheap until the monthly bill arrived.”
Characterized by unit economics comprehensible only in retrospect. “A tokenomical illusion: input tokens cheap, output tokens expensive, system prompts counted every call.”
Of or relating to financial decisions made by examining per-token costs without modeling actual usage. “His tokenomical analysis ignored that the model needed 4,000 tokens of context to say hello.”
Derivatives
tokenomics n. The study of API pricing structures and their devastating real-world consequences. “Tokenomics 101: your system prompt is not free.”
tokenomically adv. In a manner that is superficially cheap. “Tokenomically speaking, it’s a bargain. Financially speaking, we’re insolvent.”
tokenomy n. The broader economic system in which inference is metered, hoarded, and leveraged. “In the tokenomy, the verbose subsidize the terse.”
Mechanisms of Tokenomical Harm
System prompts billed on every request
Output tokens priced 3-5x input tokens
Retries after failures still billable
“Thinking” tokens you cannot see but must purchase
Usage Note The tokenomical trap is sprung gradually. Day one: “this is so cheap.” Day thirty: “we need to talk about the AI budget.”
See Also pray per token, scale fail, metered intelligence
Origin Mid-2020s, blend of token + economical. The ironic suffix preserves the original word’s optimistic connotation while inverting its meaning.