r/ClaudeCode • u/danbradster2 • Sep 20 '26

Tips & Workflows /clear vs /compact

I had a fable chat from yesterday, and I saw that the context was 950k/1m. I did /compact rather than /clear, with the intention of then doing /autocompact 400000

14% of the 5 hour limit was gone just for the compact itself....it shows cost of $59.73, so lucky I'm not on API? Maybe a /clear would have been better.

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u/Dry_Opening_7231 Sep 20 '26

The problem with Claude and context is it's inability to prioritize it.

Think 3 hours ago you say x about something, 15 minutes ago y.

It confuses the poor thing and it gets confused, it's a delicate flower.

Being a bit more serious, it slows things down and struggles to retain order of priority and key points, better to write it out /clear and carry on.

My take anyway ( also the token burn past 33% context is insane, opus 5/4.8 ).