Problem Solutions
Where Did My Claude Code Usage Go? The Hidden Token Tax Eating Your Quota
The posts keep appearing in the same places with the same wording. On r/ClaudeCode, a user who keeps hitting the five-hour limit insists they must have a "token leak" — nobody else uses the account. A Pro user on r/ClaudeAI ran /compact right after a usage reset and watched the meter jump to 11% "without actually getting any work done." Another typed "continue" after a break and saw usage climb from 0% to around 40% on a single word. The consistent finding of everyone who has audited this: there is no leak. There is a tax — the invisible part of every request your agent sends — and it can be measured and cut.
Why every turn costs more than the last
Claude Code does not send your latest message to the model. It sends the system prompt, your project context, and the entire conversation so far — every file read, every command output, every earlier reply. A turn in which the agent makes ten tool calls re-reads that whole prefix roughly ten times. In ordinary chat this barely matters. In an agent session, where the context grows with every file and test run, each step is priced on everything that came before it. Long sessions therefore do not drain your allowance linearly; they drain it at an accelerating rate.
The cache-expiry trap
Prompt caching is what normally keeps this affordable: the repeated prefix is cached, and reading from cache is cheap. The trap is expiry. When the cache lapses — typically after a break — the next request must rewrite the entire prefix, and on current Claude models a cache write costs on the order of 40 times a cache read. That is the arithmetic behind the 0%-to-40% "continue." The word cost nothing. Re-establishing the context for a long session cost the rest. Resuming stale sessions is the single most expensive habit most users have.
The other drains
MCP servers. Every connected MCP server loads its tool definitions into the session, whether or not the task uses them. A toolbox of servers you connected "just in case" is a per-turn charge.
Instruction files. A long CLAUDE.md, skill listings and project context ride along on every request. Necessary context is worth its tokens; accumulated cruft is not.
The default model changed. Claude Code version 2.1.280 changed the default model on Pro and Team Standard plans from Sonnet to Opus, and Opus draws usage down faster per message. Users who "changed nothing" in the same week their limits started evaporating often had this changed for them. Typing /model and choosing Sonnet restores the old burn rate for routine work.
Broad prompts. "Improve this codebase" invites the agent to scan widely; every file it opens joins the context permanently. Specific prompts — one function, one file, one test — keep the prefix small.
Measure before you cut
Four instruments make the tax visible. /usage shows your plan limits and what is counting against them. /context shows what is actually filling the window. The open-source ccusage tool breaks consumption down from your local session logs, by session and by day. And the session logs themselves show the per-request token counts. The auditors who write about this converge on the same advice: measure first, then fix one leak at a time and re-run the numbers after a few days — otherwise you will not know which change worked.
The fixes, in order of return
Start fresh sessions for new tasks instead of resuming old ones; compact deliberately before a break rather than after a reset. Trim CLAUDE.md and disconnect MCP servers the current project does not use. Keep prompts specific and use plan mode for complex work, so the agent proposes an approach before it starts reading files. Drop to Sonnet for routine work and reserve Opus for the steps that need it. And if your bills look like API charges rather than subscription usage, check whether an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set in your environment — with one present, Claude Code bills the API instead of the plan you already paid for.
The takeaway
Your quota is not leaking; it is being spent on re-reading. The users who fixed their "token leak" did not find a bug — they found the prefix. Once you can see it in /context and ccusage, the five-hour limit stops being a mystery and becomes a budget, and budgets can be managed.