How to Cut Claude Code Token Costs

Updated

Most of a Claude Code bill is context the agent reads, not code it writes. Price a session in the Claude Code token cost calculator, then cut the input side first.

Load less context

Every turn resends what the agent has read. Point it at the file and line it needs instead of letting it explore, and keep project instructions short enough to read in a few hundred tokens.

Pick the model per job

Input and output prices differ by up to ten times between models. Routine edits and searches run well on a smaller model; save the largest for design and hard debugging.

Keep tickets small

A small ticket with a test finishes on the first pass. A large one rereads the same files across retries, and every retry is billed again.

Measure before you scale

Type this inside a Claude Code session to see its tokens and cost so far. Run it when a ticket finishes, before you clear the session:

/cost

Track tokens per ticket for a week, then multiply by the terminals you plan to run. Where Claude Code tokens go shows what that tracking found on real projects.

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