Compacting with the same model cuts Claude Code session costs by ~75% via cache hits
JoshuaJosephson · reddit · 2026-11-05
A Reddit user breaks down why you should never compact Claude Code sessions with a different model. Summarizing a long Opus session with Haiku costs 10-15¢ and produces worse summaries, while compacting with the same model hits the cache discount (0.5/2.5 pricing), costing about a quarter of an uncached Sonnet request.
He also recommends force-compacting before the cache TTL expires, so stepping away from a session doesn't return you to a $1+ uncached compaction charge. Combined, these tricks smooth usage spikes and cut overall token spend significantly.
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