Claude Code wastes tokens on status line
The gist
A gist author says Claude Code's status-line summaries took 16.4% of one week's spend.
The feature is on by default, so users pay for words they never see.
How it unfolded
- Aug 2026The agent_summary status-line feature has been on by default in Claude Code since version 2.1.232, according to the gist.
- Oct 24, 2026A Reddit r/ClaudeCode post asks whether users are "supposed to outsmart Claude to avoid wasting" tokens, saying Claude Code is "wasting tokens on purpose apparently."
- Oct 25, 2026A How-To Geek article reports Claude used 84.6K tokens at the start of a chat, later reduced to 68.7K, roughly 16K fewer.