How to estimate AI token usage before coding

This guide fits tickets where developers expect to ask an AI assistant to inspect code, draft changes, write tests, or explain unfamiliar areas of the system.

Engineering teams using coding assistants can use this page when ordinary story-point planning does not capture how much AI-assisted exploration, prompting, generation, and review the work may require.

Estimate the number of meaningful AI sessions, the amount of project context needed, and whether the team expects repeated prompt-and-review loops.

In Token Poker, ask participants to vote privately before reveal. A private vote reduces anchoring and makes it easier to see whether disagreement is about delivery effort, likely AI usage, or both.

Record the final story-point estimate, final token estimate, and the assumptions that changed during discussion. The assumptions are often more useful than the number because they show what the team needs to learn next.

If token estimates are high, ask whether the ticket needs extra discovery, smaller slices, clearer acceptance criteria, or a deliberate decision to spend more AI budget on the work.

A pre-coding token estimate is directional. It should help compare tickets and expose assumptions, not promise exact provider usage.

Competitor and tool comparisons should stay specific. Token Poker focuses on AI-aware planning poker; other tools may be a better fit when a team only needs classic story-point voting or has different workflow requirements.