Anthropic released a blog sharing six money-saving tips for Claude Code: clear the conversation with /clear after completing a task; lock the model and reasoning intensity at the start to avoid invalidating the prompt cache by switching; use @ to reference files instead of typing paths manually; add silent parameters to commands that generate a lot of output; run /compact before taking a break; assign large output tasks to sub-agents.
The Official stated that output tokens are five times more expensive than input tokens, while reading after a prompt cache hit costs only 0.1 times the normal input price, saving 90%. Developers consume approximately $13 worth of tokens per day on average.
TL;DR
Run
/clearbetween tasks. This prevents prior irrelevant context from being sent back to the model, which can reduce token usage.Set your model and effort level before you start. Changing either one mid-conversation can bust your prompt cache, which can increase token cost.
@-mention files instead of naming them. The file gets attached to your message directly, which saves a Read call, or a search if Claude has to go find it.
Add quiet flags to noisy commands, or run them in a subagent. Command output is added to the conversation just like a file, and stays there for the rest of the session.
Run
/contextonce in a fresh session. It shows what’s loaded (CLAUDE.md, MCP tool definitions), so you can cut out anything unnecessary./compactbefore you take a break from your keyboard. The prompt cache expires after an hour, and summarizing a conversation is much cheaper while it’s still cached.
Reference: https://claude.com/blog/maximizing-the-value-of-your-claude-code-sessions