Estimate the token requirements of a multi-agent workflow using workload assumptions you control. This calculator turns operational inputs into a clear primary estimate plus supporting capacity and planning metrics. Use it for early architecture comparisons, budget reviews, or scenario checks, then replace the defaults with measurements from your own traces and provider terms before making production commitments.
The result is a planning allowance, not a provider-enforced limit. Actual usage changes with tokenizer behavior, tool messages, context growth, and generated response length.
Measure production traces and update the averages regularly; long tool outputs and conversation history can dominate the budget.
With 4 agents, 8 tasks each, 1,200 input tokens, 400 output tokens, 15% coordination overhead, and a 5% retry rate:
Yes. The retry-rate input applies an additional percentage to task-level token use.
Enter their full token count for capacity planning; apply any cache pricing separately in a cost model.
Include tool requests, tool results, and any returned context in the average input or output token estimates.
No. Token budgets estimate consumption; provider rate limits use separate request and token windows.
Context growth, variable output length, retries, and unusually large tool results can push usage above an average-based estimate.
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Input tokens | Prompt, context, and tool content sent to the model |
| Output tokens | Generated model content |
| Retry rate | Additional repeated task calls |
| Overhead | Fixed or coordination tokens included by the selected model |