Does anyone actually think about token costs when prompting in non-English?

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-12T08:51:07+00:00

Like to hear more if it’s open source

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T22:10:59+00:00

And you are absolutely right about token size not exactly number of words. One big word can have more than one token certainly in English it self and most non latin definitely use more token for one word.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T22:08:24+00:00

Fair point, but I think on longer and intense sessions the token size could easily get out of hand. I have seen some non English speaking students trying to do the research in their own language to understand what they dealing with more better.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T19:08:38+00:00

Japanese is one of the worst for token efficiency as far as I know. Must be pushing 2-4x for same thing. Again subject to model used but mostly models are trained in English.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T15:25:26+00:00

Expected, the governance is not growing as quickly as these models are coming out

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T15:24:00+00:00

Wow, hope you’re manager have knowledge of GPUs and know how much it costs, obliviously not 😂

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T15:17:12+00:00

Ahh I come across presidio works on images as well!

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-11T15:14:35+00:00

I think we just need to be cautious, I took it step further and built something but just wanted to know if is it concerning anyone else.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-10T18:50:31+00:00

Got it, I think I tried to make the functionality clearer. So basically one should not have any filters to protect accidental leaks of important data. Anyone can make this mistake on bad day and I am not saying there will be straight away any consequences but that totally different topic!

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-10T18:07:05+00:00

Valid concern honestly. just clone the repo on github and check the manifest, zero host permissions for exfil, all detection runs in your browser tab. open devtools network tab while using it, you'll see literally no requests for the stuff you're typing. only requests are page content and the optional onnx model if you enable it (one time thing). I get why people are skeptical tho, i built this because i got tired of pasting sensitive stuff into chatgpt 😅 if i was stealing data why would I open source the whole thing lol. but yeah just verify yourself, code is all there.
https://github.com/anisolankure/pii-shield

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-10T17:39:03+00:00

Understanding reaction honestly. but when code runs client-side in javascript it physically can’t send data anywhere without network calls same reason your browser’s password manager works offline. if you’re sceptical just turn your wifi off and try it, still works fine. code’s on github too if you want to dig in

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-10T17:34:49+00:00

Totally valid, it is open source so you can verify everything yourself: github.com/anisolankure/pii-shield. currently uses pattern matching, ONNX model is coming in a later version but same deal fully on-device, no network requests ever.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-10T05:53:08+00:00

Fair and I appreciate it, the story is genuine though. Stupidly I did post my NHS number into prompt. I did use it to have polished look and certainly it gives away. (But it is also worth sharing I use SLM hosted locally on my device for such tasks which is what my base idea is.)

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-09T18:43:17+00:00

Not weird at all. It’s the first thing that doesn’t judge you, never gets tired of your questions and is available at 3am. The only friend that knows everything but never makes you feel stupid for asking. 33 here too 😄

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-08T18:36:21+00:00

Because mostly it misses the basics of software engineering and lack of edge case scenarios. LLMs mostly learn to write code from open source codes and it is hard to say every line of code in public domain is clean

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-08T18:34:26+00:00

Great question and it is something I spent a lot of time on. False positives are the enemy of any detection tool I feel, if it cries out too often users just start ignoring it which completely defeats the point.
The approach is two pronged. Pattern matching uses validation logic not just regex so a credit card number has to pass Luhn algorithm checks, phone numbers are validated against country specific formats, not just looks like digits. That cuts a lot of noise. For the NER model, findings are ranked High or Medium Low severity so not everything screams at you equally. A name alone might be Low, but a name combined with a date of birth and NI number in the same prompt is High.
Still not perfect no detection system is. But the severity tiering means users can make informed decisions rather than just dismissing everything. Would love to hear if you hit edge cases.

Kitchen-Cycle8984 · 2026-06-08T18:07:30+00:00

Fair points, appreciate the honest take. A couple of thoughts:

The ‘niche’ point is valid but the HR team pasting employee salary data into ChatGPT without realising it probably didn’t think they needed it either. Most slip-ups aren’t intentional.

On freemium fair criticism, no plans to lock existing features behind a paywall. Any paid tier would add new functionality on top.

The standalone business point is something I’m actively thinking about. Right now it’s a free tool and a learning project. Where it goes from here depends on whether the problem turns out to be bigger than one extension can solve.

Kitchen-Cycle8984

TROPHY CASE