Study: Context compactor hides real costs as Agent retrieval calls triple
dair_ai · x · 2026-08-19
Research reveals that validating context compression via task completion hides the real bill. In a bounded 24-turn tool-using agent, GPT-5.5 held completion flat while retrieval calls climbed from 21.0 to 63.9. The agent spent three times the tool calls recovering state dropped by the compactor. Content validity mattered more than volume.
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