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Do these system prompts count against your token usage?
by alberth 1mo ago
Do these system prompts count against your token usage?
- simonw 1mo agoNo, because these ones affect the consumer chat products and not the API or Claude Code. (Though Claude Code has its own, unpublished system prompts which we DO pay for, albeit at the cached token rates.)
- Dfol 1mo agoSo YES if you're using Cowork or Chat
- TZubiri 1mo agoNo, because they are cached, the inference cost is paid once per model, does not scale linearly per user or use.
- virtujoel 1mo agoTechnically these do count against your token usage if you happen to use claude.ai web chat alongside Claude Code - both use the same allowance. Makes me appreciate OpenAI/ChatGPT giving you unlimited chat that doesn't drain your Codex allowance.
- simonw 1mo agoYeah, Claude chat does show little in-app messages occasionally warning that Opus or Fable will burn through your rates faster.