Glossary · Prompting & context
Token Budget
An explicit allocation of token capacity across instructions, evidence, history, tool results, reasoning or working space, and output.
Why it matters
Every included token competes for context capacity, latency, and cost. Budgeting forces you to preserve high-value evidence first.
In practice
Reserve output capacity, cap retrieved chunks, summarize old tool results into state, and stop or compact before the model limit is reached.
Common confusion
A token budget is a planning constraint. It is not the same as the model's maximum context window.
Related terms
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