Reasoning Models Plus Multi-Agent Swarms Will Cause Exponential Token Consumption
robleclerc · x · 2026-08-11
Reasoning models have already 10x'd token consumption for individual tasks. When we deploy swarms of 50 agents, internal collaboration loops will trigger exponential growth, leading to a 10 x 50 x 10 explosion in usage.
Factoring in outer loops where agents interact with external systems before coordinating back, the compute overhead will be massive. The author notes that the Jevons paradox will absorb all efficiency gains: as inference becomes cheaper and more efficient, overall consumption will just scale up dramatically.
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