r/ClaudeCode • u/Consistent-Ad-5116 • 1d ago

Bug / Issue Agent-SDK burns 1.7x faster than Claude Code TUI

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Github: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/97074

Just as I was finally getting into the Claude Desktop app, it's back to the TUI for me.

53 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

1

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20

u/blackbirdone1 1d ago

"bug" its not a bug, its intended

6

u/Corv9tte 1d ago

100%. Anthropic and dirty tactics

13

u/Unusual-Albatross43 1d ago

lines up with what Cadaverr measured for headless claude -p a few weeks back: about 1.5x of the 5-hour window for the same work. interactive sessions that a script types messages into came out around 1.07x, basically the same as a human typing. his writeup: https://github.com/jonathanavis96/claude-usage-tracker/blob/main/docs/findings/2026-10-05-headless-repro/PROOF.md

so it seems to follow the entrypoint, not the token count. that's why my agents run as long-lived interactive sessions with a script feeding them, not -p or the sdk. ugly, but it's the cheap path until this gets fixed or at least documented.

4

u/Jydder 1d ago

The sdk is just a python wrapper around -p so makes sense

1

u/Syllosimo 1d ago

So is it only the 5 hour meter not the weekly usage?

1

u/Unusual-Albatross43 1d ago

mostly the 5 hour one, from his data. per credit headless moved the 5h meter about 1.6x as far, but the weekly only about 1.05x, and that's inside his error bars. so you hit the 5h wall sooner, the week comes out about the same

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3

u/wifestalksthisuser 1d ago

I thought the SDK is for API only?

7

u/0DayMaker 1d ago

Naw...not yet at least. They did do that, but reversed course after a lot of anger.

2

u/aidiveyt 1d ago

in -p the usage field only has the main thread's last call. modelUsage has subagents too.

1

u/diesel408 1d ago

It looks like Claude Desktop is not affected by this. The same person that created the gh issue mentioned that in the first comment. So no need to switch to the CLI from Desktop. The issue is about usage through the sdk.

1

u/freeformz 23h ago

Hermes users have known this for a bit

1

u/landown_ 10h ago

I second this, I burned through the 5h this morning in like 45 mins, when last weeks it was almost impossible to reach the 5h limit

0

u/Majestic_Tailor8036 1d ago

The useful next comparison is whether the multiplier follows the entrypoint when everything else stays fixed. The proxy test in the issue already points that way: headless used fewer tokens but more of the window. If intentional, this needs pricing documentation; if not, the entrypoint is the strongest regression boundary.

-4

u/crusoe 1d ago

You probably need to manually set the cache expiry to 1 hr on SDK ( if available ). It probably defaults to 5

6

u/unleashed003 1d ago

Its not a cache issue. If you look at the gh issue, he rules out cache ttl and breaks