Markdown tables padded for alignment
Column alignment is whitespace, and whitespace is tokens.
Formatters pad markdown table cells so the pipes line up in a text editor. The model does not care whether the pipes line up; it parses the delimiters.
The cost scales with the widest column times the number of rows. A twenty-row reference table padded to align is often several hundred wasted tokens, and reference tables are exactly the kind of static content that sits in a system prompt on every request.
The separator row is the worst offender: `| ------------------- |` is pure decoration. Three dashes parse identically.
| status | meaning |
| --------- | -------------------- |
| open | not yet triaged ||status|meaning|
|---|---|
|open|not yet triaged|Check your own prompt
The analyser checks this pattern along with the other 25, prices each finding against your request volume, and hands back a rewritten prompt. It runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Run the analyserMore on formatting
- Shouting is billed by the letterALL-CAPS words split into more tokens than the same word in title case.
- Smart quotes from a word processorCurly quotes and em dashes cost several tokens each. Their ASCII twins cost one.
- ASCII art in a paid channelRows of equals signs are for humans reading a terminal, not for the model.
- Whitespace you are paying to storeTrailing spaces and stacked blank lines are billable and invisible.