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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26683 |
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| _version_ | 1866913072929570816 |
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| author | Lee, Jaeyong Kang, Heeju Cho, Ahra Eunkyung, Baek |
| author_facet | Lee, Jaeyong Kang, Heeju Cho, Ahra Eunkyung, Baek |
| contents | With the rapid spread of generative AI services, the token has gained value not only as a technical unit of language processing but also as an economic currency for accessing AI services. Major AI model providers have adopted token-based billing as their default service model, requiring users to purchase platform-bound, fixed token usage rights. However, the fixedness of these usage rights is grounded in the billing-policy decisions of service providers rather than in any technical necessity. This study defines the Transferability of token usage rights as a design property that allows users to flexibly reallocate purchased data resources free from the constraints of time, account, and service. Drawing on the Design Space Analysis framework of MacLean et al. (1991), we identify five design axes (Target, Direction, Unit, Control, Reversibility) and five concrete Transferability types (carry-over, co-management, transfer, conversion, and trade) by analyzing the billing policies and terms of service of four major LLM services (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok). Our analysis reframes the token from a purely economic-technical primitive into a core element of user-centered system design that expands user choice and autonomy. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26683 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Transferability of Token Usage Rights: A Design Space Analysis of Generative AI Services Lee, Jaeyong Kang, Heeju Cho, Ahra Eunkyung, Baek Human-Computer Interaction With the rapid spread of generative AI services, the token has gained value not only as a technical unit of language processing but also as an economic currency for accessing AI services. Major AI model providers have adopted token-based billing as their default service model, requiring users to purchase platform-bound, fixed token usage rights. However, the fixedness of these usage rights is grounded in the billing-policy decisions of service providers rather than in any technical necessity. This study defines the Transferability of token usage rights as a design property that allows users to flexibly reallocate purchased data resources free from the constraints of time, account, and service. Drawing on the Design Space Analysis framework of MacLean et al. (1991), we identify five design axes (Target, Direction, Unit, Control, Reversibility) and five concrete Transferability types (carry-over, co-management, transfer, conversion, and trade) by analyzing the billing policies and terms of service of four major LLM services (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok). Our analysis reframes the token from a purely economic-technical primitive into a core element of user-centered system design that expands user choice and autonomy. |
| title | Transferability of Token Usage Rights: A Design Space Analysis of Generative AI Services |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26683 |