Context Compraction Called Costly and Unnecessary for Long Agent Sessions

Mainplane author Alezander9 argues context compaction is a mistake: compressing a 400K-token session takes 38 seconds and costs $1.99. Once the prompt cache expires, the full context must be re-read, making the hidden cost even greater.

2026-10-30 ~ 2026-10-30 · 2 related posts

• Measuring compaction on a 400k-token session: 38s and $1.99 per run — brandon_galang · 2026-10-30
• The hidden cost of context compaction: re-prefilling 400K tokens after cache expiry — dotey · 2026-10-30