Story
Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k
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Overview
Claude Code uses approximately 33,000 tokens of system prompt, tool schemas, and injected scaffolding before processing a prompt, compared to OpenCode's 7,000 tokens. This results in Claude Code sending 4.7 times more tokens than OpenCode before reading user input.
Summary from systima.ai.
Reports
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Community reactions
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Hacker News · systima.ai
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Historical count: 5 · 5 saved in sample · Historical sample
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-07-13.
- Praise: Fable's 'curiosity' could actually enhance complex project planning, allowing subagents to explore multiple angles for thoroughness — a game changer for ambitious tasks.
- Praise: Using a minimal system prompt with Claude Code can significantly streamline interactions, tackling inefficiencies head-on and potentially saving users from excessive token consumption.
- Concern: Claude Code's token consumption is outrageous, with subagents burning through budgets before even starting real work — it feels like a ploy to maximize profits at users' expense.
- Concern: There's a clear negative incentive for Anthropic to keep users reliant on expensive subscriptions rather than addressing inefficiencies, making it seem like they're more interested in profits than user experience.
- Concern: Token inflation is a real issue; simple tasks now require far more tokens than before, leaving users frustrated with the escalating costs for basic functionality.