Real-World Token Usage Examples
Check out how many tokens are needed for different real-world teams
How to estimate your monthly token usage
Ingestion of Processed Data (documents and media) is usually the biggest token driver; chat, Astell Actions, and Audits draw from the same pool on top. Estimate ingestion in three steps:
- List what you ingest (Processed Data only), usually slide decks, PDFs, images, recordings.
- Convert to units: slides/pages/sheets, images, and minutes.
- Compare against your org's monthly pool: on Tree and above, tokens are pooled (tokens/seat × seats); usage beyond the pool becomes pay-as-you-go.
Token math: documents 5/page (or slide/sheet), images 1 each, audio 2/min, video 8/min, meetings 10/min, web pages 5/page, people or company entities 25 each.
Quick rule of thumb
- Mostly messages and tasks with a few docs → you'll rarely notice tokens.
- Lots of decks and PDFs weekly → tokens matter but are predictable.
- Years of archives or lots of recordings → plan for pay-as-you-go and set a token limit you're comfortable with.
Real-world examples
- Development team (25 devs): 50 architecture diagrams (50 tokens) + 10 specs × 8 pages (400) + 5 demo videos × 3 min (120) ≈ 570 tokens/month.
- Marketing agency (20 people): 100 decks × 12 slides (6,000) + 200 images (200) + 50 PDFs × 6 pages (1,500) + 20 videos × 2 min (320) ≈ 8,020 tokens/month.
- Sales team (10 reps): 30 decks × 15 slides (2,250) + 20 PDFs × 4 pages (400) + 50 images (50) ≈ 2,700 tokens/month.
These examples count ingestion only; chat, Astell Actions, and Audits add to them. Onboarding month is usually the peak. Ingesting an archive can multiply usage; set your token limit accordingly.
Common pitfalls that make estimates wrong
- Underestimating slide decks (they add up fast).
- Treating onboarding like steady state (onboarding is usually the peak month).
- Forgetting video and meeting minutes are priced per minute.
Planning for pooled tokens and pay-as-you-go
Starting on Tree, tokens are pooled at the organization level. There is one shared token balance for the org, and all seats draw from it. Your organization's monthly tokens = (plan tokens per seat) × (number of seats). Example: 10 users on Tree = 100,000 tokens/month. Because tokens are pooled, any user's Processed Data ingestion draws from the shared balance; Grove and Forest add customized admin controls over who can consume tokens.