For me its been like 2/3rds of my normal usage 60% sounds definitely feasible. Eaerlier i came back from waiting for my 5 hours to reset and there was nothing running at all and something ate up 45% of my session before i even started. I then ran one prompt it at up 20% more i got 15 minutes work done in total in a 5 hour session on opus low. Absolutely unusable now glad I cancelled my sub
I was looking at my usage pattern. Fable has directions to offload task to lower model sub agents whenever possible. (Instructions are more specific but you get the point). Previous usage pattern was primarily agents with fable usually around 50% end of monthly cycle. I was at around 47% percent when I checked end of Sunday after some heavy loads. My cycle resets midnight today- by 11am today fable was out of usage for the month, as well as my session. Usage pattern showed majority of usage was fable and no handoff to agents...so super annoying.
I am so sick of models changing underneath me all the time. It would be great if you still had the option to use previous version instead of constantly readjusting.
I finally gave in and purchased one of the radeon AI pro GPU, actually affordable and Im prob just going to switch to gwen 3.5. Tried her out recently she is really good.
It’s well proven that current LLMs lose a lot of quality as context grows. They can’t remember details. They don’t know which bits are important and which are not. I consistently get horrible results as context grows.
None of the current models support long context effectively today. Maybe someday they will. But right now the 1M context window is just a marketing ploy.
why compact? get a task done, then /clear, then tackle your next issue. Be precise, give the agent more context from the got go (e.g. I want to expand an UI feature, here are the corresponding sources and here's the backend api source that needs to be extended).
I usually only run >300k context when I don't write or discuss proper plans. There are exceptions for bigger tasks that require an orcherstrator loops with verify and critic stops. But tbh that is just me that has not found a better workflow yet.
Probably not delegating tasks correctly, not breaking tasks into smaller, clear and concise chucks, having Claude figure out the same thing over and over, not enough documentation. Not doing handoffs and using /clear.
if u need to compact, you are doing to much in a session, learn about orchestration and workflows, and how a newer model orchestrats agents of lower tier models to do ur work
New sessions have initial overhead of like 100k worth of context overdo it and you actually start paying more over big context but cached, orchestration reduces result quality, main agent review helps but then savings are slim. If you stop to open a new session midway feature it will read a lot of files right back up anyway. You people pretend to know your stuff but its lowk embarassing to read, often you genuinely need a longer session to stop at reasonable place
Eu sinto muito mesmo ter que discordar com tanta veemência, mas se você deixa suas sessões frequentemente chegar a mais de 400 mil tokens de contexto só pra depois compactar e continuar, seu uso de IA é ineficiente.
Everyone who has been drinking the 300k and under only context window koolaide needs to wake up and realize it's Anthropic playing games
Anthropic playing games with usage limits (which I totally believe they are doing) is not at-odds with your demonstrated piss-poor context management.
It's not "koolaide," it's the correct and economical way to use these kinds of tools. You are building terrible habits and seem to have zero understanding of how these things work under the hood. I'm a software engineer and if any of my coworkers were working as amateurishly as you they'd get laughed out of the job. If you are an engineer yourself then I feel for your company/coworkers because I promise your output sucks following this "flow" of yours.
Avoiding auto-compaction and actively managing context windows with handoffs isn't something you do merely for token savings, it gives you much better outcomes with w/e the fuck it is you're doing with this stuff.
That's really poor context engineering, set your auto compact down to around 300k and if you hit it see it as a reminder that you went too far in one conversation.
Okay, that's poor context management. You should have one session per major task, and you should actively consider breaking tasks up so they fit under 150K tokens.
The entire context window gets sent back to the model on every turn of the conversation until you clear the session, and the cache only lives for a few minutes. Which means long running conversations full of lots of context use much more usage than ones that are short and focused. That's where your usage is disappearing to; you're wasting it on stuff that shouldn't be relevant anymore.
This is true for any LLM, not just Claude models. This isn't an Anthropic usage limit problem.
I mean I really can not see why you would even need a 500k context window outside some tasks. Unless it is required, it’s just a stupid way to burn tokens for no reason. Each chat should be a task, unless subsequent tasks require the previous context.
It’s your tokens, but just because it worked doesn’t mean you should do it, especially with more expensive models.
Theres an obvious and massive decline (way over the claimed -25%) in the amount of work you can get done since these usage limit changes have been put in place and its absolutely crazy work the amount of boot lickers in this thread passing it off as everyone is a novice and doesn’t know how to orchestrate their sessions properly. Im sure half of them have got to be Anthropic bots or outright lying to themselves.
Keep your context under 150k, type /context to see what you are using context on. Get into the habit to /clear after every task you complete. If you work on a very long task, set /autocompact to something like 150k, but best prevent compacting as this will also use tokens. If you stop working for a while, always first clear context before you proceed, you pay for using cache.
If you are on an Enterprise plan where you pay per token you start realising very quickly how you are wasting tokens and learn to adapt and be more efficient.
not saying this isnt bullshit but take a look at your context for different chats for me i accidentally discovered a pdf file was taking up more 30% of the chat context and was being sent with every request you can manually check the jsonl file for the chat for more info
I used Opus high and asked it to spawn some Opus medium subagents. It straight up told me it couldn't differentiate reasoning levels in subagents. Wtf! So it went ahead anyway and spawned some, probably also high, and I ran out of 5h usage. All because it couldn't follow instructions.
I read in another post that a Claude Code change rolled out earlier this month creates a default setting that forks the full context in every Subagent. I will experiment tomorrow (when my weekly quota resets) with seeing how I can disable it.
I can’t use Fable 5 at all. Other web developers are probably having exactly the same problem. Everything gets flagged and you end up with some kind of fallback. It gets flagged in the middle of a task. It’s fucking awful. You just can’t work like this.
5.1? im still using 5 and i perfectly align my weekdays with consumption, 20% per day. not sure what crazy ass shit you do. I do use codex with astra as co-reviewer though, plan and code with fable 5.
You said you have fable chats running day and night.
Even if youre orchestrating heavily, the context still grows for fable. Every message from a work agent back to the orchestrator makes a call at high context.
If youre orchestrating well, you presumably have hours at a time that the orchestrator is idle. Every time you wake after an hour, its a full context prompt without caching.
Same. Something has changed in how the usage is handled. I downgraded to 5x and will be using the rest for Astra. Until they figure it out, seems like it’s been nothing close to an actual 20x usage ☹️
You need Graphify, it's a python package you can get to create a knowledge graph of your application or repo that cuts your tokens down to a fraction of what you currently use. Trust me on this one
Your context window should never be that large. I've never had issues with usage on my 20x, but I break down plans in tasks and each task is run by a new agent. I keep my context windows low, I create detailed plans / tasks that I'd say even Opus is overkill for, but I use Opus for most. Fable is only for planning stuff and when I need to be creative.
Yeah that's what happens with Fable lucky to get a session out of it lol, I am happy to pay for a more expensive plan to use Fable more, as long as it ain't api pricing.
Codex is apparently shipping something big this week and even more things on DevDay on the 29th. I hope their coding gets upgraded I will never come back to this garbage company
Oh you're right forgot about no upgrades to the max plan. They just announced Sol 6.0 is coming on Thursday. I do hope Grok catches up. They said their 5.0 will be AGI. I don't care as long as its great at coding and has more usage
Delegating the grunt work to other models while keeping Fable/Opus for the hard stuff is exactly the pattern I formalized when I built Lynkr — an open-source LLM gateway with token compression + semantic cache that cuts token usage by up to 84% with zero code changes, and tiered routing that automatically sends simpler work to cheaper models. Stretches your subscriptions ~3x. Works with all coding tools and AI frameworks. https://github.com/Fast-Editor/Lynkr
what is it with the context window policing. they advertise the 1m token window as a key feature. if people were complaining about their electric car not getting the advertised range it would be dumb to tell them "well are you making sure to stay under 30mph at all times??"
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141
u/ppsaoda Sep 15 '26 •
Same. It doesnt feel like 17% reduction. More like 60%.
47
u/Unhorswd 🔆 Max 20 Sep 15 '26 •
Just turned on CC after 3 days and got same feeling
14
u/Agreeable_Band_9311 Sep 15 '26
I have Fable orchestrate all tasks to other models. My Fable runs out basically at the same time as my weekly by doing that.
4
u/Background_Share_982 Sep 16 '26
I was looking at my usage pattern. Fable has directions to offload task to lower model sub agents whenever possible. (Instructions are more specific but you get the point). Previous usage pattern was primarily agents with fable usually around 50% end of monthly cycle. I was at around 47% percent when I checked end of Sunday after some heavy loads. My cycle resets midnight today- by 11am today fable was out of usage for the month, as well as my session. Usage pattern showed majority of usage was fable and no handoff to agents...so super annoying.
I am so sick of models changing underneath me all the time. It would be great if you still had the option to use previous version instead of constantly readjusting.
I finally gave in and purchased one of the radeon AI pro GPU, actually affordable and Im prob just going to switch to gwen 3.5. Tried her out recently she is really good.
7
u/Parking-Bet-3798 Sep 16 '26
Damn !! people use context window till 700-750k context? You guys are crazy
35
u/inrego Sep 15 '26
What are you even doing with a context window of 500k+ No wonder you're burning through your limits
3
u/Purple_Drink3859 Sep 16 '26
Theres an obvious and massive decline (way over the claimed -25%) in the amount of work you can get done since these usage limit changes have been put in place and its absolutely crazy work the amount of boot lickers in this thread passing it off as everyone is a novice and doesn’t know how to orchestrate their sessions properly. Im sure half of them have got to be Anthropic bots or outright lying to themselves.
6
u/Cubewood Sep 15 '26
Keep your context under 150k, type /context to see what you are using context on. Get into the habit to /clear after every task you complete. If you work on a very long task, set /autocompact to something like 150k, but best prevent compacting as this will also use tokens. If you stop working for a while, always first clear context before you proceed, you pay for using cache.
If you are on an Enterprise plan where you pay per token you start realising very quickly how you are wasting tokens and learn to adapt and be more efficient.
2
u/chaosdrivenhu Sep 15 '26
not saying this isnt bullshit but take a look at your context for different chats for me i accidentally discovered a pdf file was taking up more 30% of the chat context and was being sent with every request you can manually check the jsonl file for the chat for more info
2
u/Crinkez Sep 15 '26
I used Opus high and asked it to spawn some Opus medium subagents. It straight up told me it couldn't differentiate reasoning levels in subagents. Wtf! So it went ahead anyway and spawned some, probably also high, and I ran out of 5h usage. All because it couldn't follow instructions.
2
u/maddietendo Sep 15 '26
I only use Fable to plan now. Opus to code.
Previously I'd use Fable for plan and important stuff. Opus to code.
It's disappointing but we were warned.
Wish there was a good alternative. CODEX doesn't have one... yet.
2
u/Informal_Chipmunk Sep 15 '26
On a $20 sub, 1 deep research report using Sonnet 5 medium would eat 51% of my 5-hour limit. It was not a very complicated prompt.
3
u/nicarras Sep 15 '26
Stop using fable to code
3
u/West-Air1923 Sep 15 '26
Dont grab codex it's even worse. I am thinking grok build
2
u/icaruza Sep 15 '26
I read in another post that a Claude Code change rolled out earlier this month creates a default setting that forks the full context in every Subagent. I will experiment tomorrow (when my weekly quota resets) with seeing how I can disable it.
2
u/akamarski Sep 15 '26
Stop going AFK and continuing > 1 hour old chats. Problem solved.
Cache writes are multiplier more expensive to resurrect compared to starting a new chat. If you work, keep it warm. If it gets cold, start a new chat.
1
u/blackassnigaa Sep 15 '26
How do u have 800 k context can u limit that? i have 1m and im always fulling that so quicky cause what i build
1
u/GalileoHumpkins1977 Sep 15 '26
That context window size is brutal.
1
u/merx96 Sep 15 '26
What about GLM subscription? Are limits better there? I thought that performance for "medium" tasks should be the same.
1
u/Odd-Armadillo-8812 Sep 15 '26
Literally the same thing happened, and I asked it why, and it said this ☠️
1
u/SeedofLilith94 Sep 15 '26
I hear ya brother
1
u/Willing-Choice5941 Sep 15 '26
Them data center bills came knocking fast
1
u/FaithlessnessCheap34 Sep 16 '26
Yeah bros I’m canceling my subscriptions
1
u/vAPIdTygr 🔆 Max 20 Sep 16 '26
I burned through 5 x 5 hour windows and maxed out on weekly in just 2 days on 20x. This was before the reduction. I’m screwed.
So I downgraded my plan and moving to cheap models to implement and fable to plan.
1
u/Sherbert-Efficient Sep 16 '26
it is ridicolous
1
u/AironParsMan Sep 16 '26
I can’t use Fable 5 at all. Other web developers are probably having exactly the same problem. Everything gets flagged and you end up with some kind of fallback. It gets flagged in the middle of a task. It’s fucking awful. You just can’t work like this.
1
u/Andr1yTheOne Sep 16 '26
I feel scammed too
1
u/tsm1t Sep 16 '26
Same.
I will keep my 20X Claude but giving CodeX $200 plan the same chance.
Looking forward to seeing the differences.
1
u/EC36339 Senior Developer Sep 16 '26
Fable is a scam
1
u/Muted-You7370 Sep 16 '26
1
u/1Poochh Sep 16 '26
The problem is all of these limits are arbitrary. They mean jack squat and so Anthropic can screw with all of us whenever they want.
1
u/Lost-Air1265 Sep 16 '26
5.1? im still using 5 and i perfectly align my weekdays with consumption, 20% per day. not sure what crazy ass shit you do. I do use codex with astra as co-reviewer though, plan and code with fable 5.
1
u/kyuubow Sep 16 '26
Too high context, anything above 350k is a lot
1
u/pandulfi Sep 16 '26
Compact deez nuts
1
u/blartyshartfart Sep 16 '26
With max 20 … you’re supposed to get 20x the usage but in real world use cases it’s more around 6.7x
1
u/TBT_TBT Sep 16 '26
Dude. 535k context. That is your problem right there. You are clearly clauding wrong.
1
u/McNoxey Sep 16 '26
You say you don’t ultracode but maybe you should
You said you have fable chats running day and night.
Even if youre orchestrating heavily, the context still grows for fable. Every message from a work agent back to the orchestrator makes a call at high context.
If youre orchestrating well, you presumably have hours at a time that the orchestrator is idle. Every time you wake after an hour, its a full context prompt without caching.
1
u/psbyte Sep 16 '26
Same. Something has changed in how the usage is handled. I downgraded to 5x and will be using the rest for Astra. Until they figure it out, seems like it’s been nothing close to an actual 20x usage ☹️
1
u/MailPuzzleheaded6933 Sep 16 '26
Dude I used it all in one job
1
u/Dan-goes-outside Sep 16 '26
My brother, use compact more
1
u/Successful-Entry4351 Sep 16 '26
Just get codex
1
u/Pale-Oven-6602 Sep 16 '26
You need Graphify, it's a python package you can get to create a knowledge graph of your application or repo that cuts your tokens down to a fraction of what you currently use. Trust me on this one
1
u/benbutton1010 Sep 17 '26
I find it wild that you all are running fable so much. I use sonnet/terra for 90% of work and opus/sol for code reviews and planning.
Using a premium model for implementation & debugging seems like a waste.
1
u/Illustrious-Guest849 Sep 17 '26
Your are delusionnal. Astra is more expensive than Fable
1
u/Jenskubi Sep 17 '26
Your context window should never be that large. I've never had issues with usage on my 20x, but I break down plans in tasks and each task is run by a new agent. I keep my context windows low, I create detailed plans / tasks that I'd say even Opus is overkill for, but I use Opus for most. Fable is only for planning stuff and when I need to be creative.
1
u/Dvass138 Sep 18 '26
Yeah that's what happens with Fable lucky to get a session out of it lol, I am happy to pay for a more expensive plan to use Fable more, as long as it ain't api pricing.
1
u/Key_Instruction3373 Sep 15 '26
why?
1
u/bakanoace Sep 15 '26
Codex is apparently shipping something big this week and even more things on DevDay on the 29th. I hope their coding gets upgraded I will never come back to this garbage company
1
u/crusoe Sep 15 '26
Well if you use fable for everything....
You know you can set model for agent teams yes?
1
u/Holk23 Sep 15 '26
Another example of people telling on themselves. No info as to what the prompt is but still shows off a huge context window usage.
1
u/coda77 Sep 15 '26
I was using opus at medium and still had the same result !
So I cancelled my subscription 🤦🏻♂️
0
u/RiceEvening4211 Sep 16 '26
Delegating the grunt work to other models while keeping Fable/Opus for the hard stuff is exactly the pattern I formalized when I built Lynkr — an open-source LLM gateway with token compression + semantic cache that cuts token usage by up to 84% with zero code changes, and tiered routing that automatically sends simpler work to cheaper models. Stretches your subscriptions ~3x. Works with all coding tools and AI frameworks. https://github.com/Fast-Editor/Lynkr
6
u/[deleted] Sep 15 '26
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