𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻𝘀
High Claude bills happen when you do not manage tokens. You pay for input tokens and output tokens. Every time you call the API, you resend the system prompt and the chat history. This adds up fast.
Follow these steps to lower your costs:
Refactor your system prompt
Many developers write system prompts like legal contracts. They use too many words for simple rules.
- Remove repetitive instructions.
- Cut examples that do not change the result.
- Use a lean instruction set.
Manage your conversation history
Sending the entire chat history in every call is expensive.
- Use a sliding window: Send only the last few messages.
- Use summarization: Ask Claude to summarize the chat and replace the old history with that summary.
- Use retrieval: Only send the parts of the history that matter.
Control the output length
Claude wants to be helpful. This often leads to long, expensive responses.
- Tell Claude to use a specific sentence count.
- Request only code without explanations.
- Set a limit on bullet points.
Avoid context stuffing
A large context window is not a reason to be messy. Do not dump massive files into a prompt if Claude only needs one paragraph. Extract the relevant data first.
Batch your tasks
Instead of making three separate API calls for three tasks, do them in one call.
- Group items together in a single prompt.
- Ask for the result in a JSON array.
- This reduces the cost of repeating the system prompt.
Use prompt caching
If you use the same system prompt repeatedly, use Anthropic's prompt caching. It reduces costs for repetitive workloads.
Treat prompting like engineering. Be intentional. Measure your counts. Cut the waste.
Optional learning community: https://t.me/GyaanSetuAi