Token Counter That Never Touches Your Files — Browser-Only, Private

If you're counting tokens for a confidential prompt, where you do the counting matters as much as how accurate it is. Most online token counters send your text to a remote server. Some keep logs. Some use it as training data. For sensitive content, that's a problem.

Why Browser-Only Counting Matters

Three real-world scenarios where this matters:

1. Legal documents. You're an attorney. You want to estimate API cost for summarizing a confidential settlement agreement. The agreement contains client-protected information. Pasting it into a server-based tool potentially violates client confidentiality.

2. Internal business content. You work at a company. You want to test a prompt that contains your internal strategy memo, competitive analysis, or financial projections. Sending it to a third-party server creates a data leakage risk that triggers compliance review.

3. Healthcare documentation. You're a doctor or health-tech developer. You want to estimate token cost for processing patient notes. HIPAA compliance requires that PHI not be sent to non-BAA-covered services.

4. Source code. You're a developer. You want to count tokens for an AI code review prompt that includes proprietary code. Your employer's policy prohibits sending source code to external services.

In all four cases, browser-only counting solves the problem. The text never leaves your device.

How to Verify a Counter Is Truly Browser-Only

Don't trust the marketing — verify yourself:

1. Open the token counter in Chrome or Firefox
2. Open DevTools (F12 or Cmd+Option+I)
3. Click the Network tab
4. Clear the network log
5. Type or paste text into the counter
6. Watch the network log

If you see new network requests appear as you type or paste, the counter is sending your text to a server. Don't use it for sensitive content.

If the network log stays empty (or only shows static asset requests), the counter is processing locally. Safe to use.

Our Token Counter — Browser-Only by Design

The WildandFree Token Counter processes text entirely in your browser using JavaScript. There is no server endpoint that receives your text. There is no API call when you type. There is no analytics event that captures your input.

Verify yourself with the network tab method above.

What Browser-Only Counters Can and Can't Do

Can do:

• Count tokens approximately for any LLM (within 5-10% of exact)
• Show word count, character count, byte count
• Estimate API cost across major models
• Process up to 100,000+ characters at a time
• Work offline once the page is loaded
• Process any content without privacy risk

Can't do:

• Give exact GPT/Claude/Gemini counts (uses approximation, not the official tokenizer)
• Store your text across sessions (would defeat the privacy purpose)
• Sync between devices (no server = no sync)

For exact counts, use the model-specific tokenizer in code. For estimation and confidential content, use browser-only counting.

Browser Counting vs Local Tokenizer

For maximum privacy AND exactness, you can run an exact tokenizer locally:

• tiktoken (Python): exact OpenAI tokenization, runs locally on your machine
• @dqbd/tiktoken (JavaScript): same, but in JS
• Hugging Face tokenizers (Python/Rust): exact tokenization for many open models

The trade-off: these require installing software. For one-off counts where install is overkill, browser counting is faster.

What "Private" Means for Free Tools

True privacy in a free tool requires:

1. No server processing: The tool runs entirely in your browser
2. No analytics on input: The tool doesn't send text content to analytics
3. No cookies storing input: Your text isn't saved across sessions
4. No third-party scripts that could exfiltrate data: The tool's page isn't loading scripts that read your input
5. Open enough to verify: You can inspect the network and see for yourself

The Token Counter meets all five. Inspect, verify, use.