The September cut took 17% of my Claude Code week. Subagents were taking 48%.
My Claude Code week started ending on Wednesday. I blamed the September 14 cut, like everyone on r/ClaudeAI did. Then I opened the usage screen and the biggest line was not me typing. It was the helpers I had told it to launch. So I read a month of my own logs before touching a single setting. 455 sessions, 63,000 requests, and a number next to every saving tip I had been told to apply. Which of…
The September cut reduced Claude Code's week by 17%, with subagents accounting for 48% of the usage. A breakdown of the month's activity included 455 sessions and 63,000 requests, with Claude Code writing JSONL files for each session and subagent run. Double counting of answers was a trap, leading to the de-duplicated figure of 9.3 billion tokens.
Subagents were responsible for 48.1% of all tokens and 64% of all output, making them the heaviest line on the meter. Each subagent run paid an entry price, with the model being another significant factor. Implementing habits such as skipping subagents for simple tasks, pinning small models, and adjusting cache timeouts can help reduce usage.
The article also discussed the impact of effort levels on costs and the potential benefits of turning off certain features.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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