What Costs the Most?
| Action | Tokens Consumed | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Read a 100-line file | ~500 | $0.0015 |
| Read 10 files (1000 lines) | ~5,000 | $0.015 |
| Long conversation (20 messages) | ~30,000 | $0.090 |
| MCP tool call (Serena, Context7) | ~2,000 | $0.006 |
| Running tests (with output) | ~3,000-10,000 | $0.009-$0.030 |
| Code generation (100 lines) | ~2,000 output | $0.030 |
The expensive operations:
- Reading entire large files - 2000+ line files add up fast
- Multiple MCP server calls - Each server adds ~2K tokens overhead
- Long conversations without
/compact- Context accumulates - Repeated trial and error - Each iteration costs