5/20/202620 min read
The context tax, and how to stop paying it
Every AI feature you ship runs a meter you can't see on the dashboard. It shows up as a token bill that climbs faster than usage and answers that quietly get worse. The reflex is to blame the model and swap in a cheaper one. That fixes nothing. The charge comes from the harness you built around it, collected on every turn. Here's where it comes from and how to stop feeding it.
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