Anthropic's extravagant tokenizer complicates AI pricing

Anthropic's new tokenizer in Claude models increases token consumption compared to OpenAI's GPT-5.x, raising costs for users. Playcode's analysis found TypeScript files processed by Claude use up to 73% more tokens, with Anthropic acknowledging higher token counts due to the updated tokenizer. Pricing adjustments and comparisons with OpenAI's models highlight challenges in predicting AI usage costs.