Token
In plain English
Token is a word with three common meanings in this glossary: an AI tokenAn AI token is a unit a model uses to process content. For text, a token may be a word, a word fragment, or punctuation., a design tokenA design token is a named design value, such as a color or a spacing size, stored so the same value can be reused., and an access tokenAn access token is a credential that lets software use protected resources within the permissions it was granted, often for a limited time..
Example
A usage screen that counts AI tokens, a stylesheet that stores a color as a design tokenA design token is a named design value, such as a color or a spacing size, stored so the same value can be reused., and a sign-in flow that hands an app an access tokenAn access token is a credential that lets software use protected resources within the permissions it was granted, often for a limited time. are three different tokens.
Why it matters
An AI tokenAn AI token is a unit a model uses to process content. For text, a token may be a word, a word fragment, or punctuation. is a unit a model uses when it processes text. A design tokenA design token is a named design value, such as a color or a spacing size, stored so the same value can be reused. is a named design value, such as a color or a spacing size, reused in code. An access tokenAn access token is a credential that lets software use protected resources within the permissions it was granted, often for a limited time. is a credential that lets software use something it was allowed to use, often for a limited time.
This page is only the split. Each meaning has its own page.
Common confusion
The old page used token only for the design value. That explanation now lives on Design tokenA design token is a named design value, such as a color or a spacing size, stored so the same value can be reused.. A bare token in a sentence may mean any of the three.
Sources
Updated September 30, 2026.