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📊 Claude Token Usage Report2026-04-11 #1920

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Description

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Overview

Period: 2026-04-05 to 2026-04-11 (7 days)
Runs analyzed: 50 (44 had token data; 6 cancelled with no data)
Total tokens: 9,238K across 3 workflows
Effective tokens: 2,989K (after Anthropic cache pricing adjustment)
Estimated total cost: $12.39
Total Actions minutes: 232 min
Total turns: 252

Three Claude-engine workflows ran: Security Guard (20 runs), Smoke Claude (23 runs), and Secret Digger (Claude) (7 runs). Overall costs declined significantly vs the previous report — Security Guard avg cost dropped 53% and Smoke Claude dropped 42%. Secret Digger (Claude) continues to exhibit a systemic cache inefficiency where cache writes exceed cache reads on every run.


Workflow Summary

Workflow Runs Total Tokens Avg Tokens Total Cost Avg Cost Avg Turns Errors Cache Reuse
Security Guard 20 3,731K 187K $4.47 $0.22 4.8 8 (40%) ⚠️ 82% ✅
Smoke Claude 23 4,623K 201K $4.31 $0.19 5.8 6 (26%) ⚠️ 83% ✅
Secret Digger (Claude) 7 884K 126K $3.60 $0.51 3.0 0 (0%) ✅ 49% ⚠️
Total 50 9,238K $12.39 $0.25 5.0 14 (28%)

🔍 Optimization Opportunities

  1. Secret Digger (Claude) — Cache write ≥ cache read on every run (49% reuse) ⚠️

    • All 7 runs this period show cache_write ≈ cache_read (~38K each), meaning the cache is created fresh each run and never hit from a prior run. Cross-run caching is not occurring.
    • With only 3 turns per run and a short context window, there is minimal intra-run reuse as well.
    • Recommendation: Move large static context (system prompt, repository facts, reference data) into a deterministic pre-agent step and pass via /tmp/gh-aw/agent/ files. This reduces expensive cache-write tokens each run. Consider consolidating runs or scheduling more frequently to improve cross-run cache hit rate.
  2. Security Guard — High error rate (8/20 = 40%) ⚠️

    • 8 runs with errors is the highest error rate of any workflow. This drives unnecessary retry turns and inflates token costs.
    • Two outlier runs consumed disproportionate tokens: §24290111812 (480K tokens, 11 turns, $0.68) and §24271368232 (981K tokens, 24 turns, $0.57).
    • Recommendation: Investigate root causes of the 8 erroring runs. The 24-turn outlier suggests an agent retry loop — add a max_turns guardrail or improve error handling to prevent runaway turns.
  3. Smoke Claude — Moderate error rate (6/23 = 26%) ⚠️

    • Approaching the 30% error threshold. Each erroring run wastes tokens on incomplete work.
    • Recommendation: Review error patterns to determine if these are infrastructure failures or agent logic errors. If systematic, consider adding retry logic or pre-flight checks.
  4. Security Guard — High token variance

    • Avg is 187K/run but two runs exceeded 480K and 981K. High variance suggests the workflow is sensitive to input size or agent path choices.
    • Recommendation: Add input size guards or deterministic pre-processing steps to bound the agent's search space.

Per-Workflow Details

Security Guard

  • Runs: 20 (§24290215023, §24290111812, §24289182705, §24289175288, §24287824916, and 15 more)
  • Total tokens: 3,731K (avg 187K/run)
  • Effective tokens: 1,461K
  • Estimated cost: $4.47 (avg $0.22/run)
  • Turns: 97 total (avg 4.8/run)
  • Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 (Anthropic)
  • Cache analysis: 3,693K read / 817K write → 82% reuse rate ✅
  • Error rate: 8/20 runs (40%) ⚠️ — includes 6 cancelled runs with no token data
  • Notable outliers:
    • §24290111812: 480K tokens, 11 turns, $0.68 (most expensive run in period)
    • §24271368232: 981K tokens, 24 turns, $0.57 (most turns in period — potential retry loop)

Smoke Claude

  • Runs: 23 (§24290111810, §24290215008, §24289182699, §24289175294, §24287824928, and 18 more)
  • Total tokens: 4,623K (avg 201K/run)
  • Effective tokens: 1,186K
  • Estimated cost: $4.31 (avg $0.19/run)
  • Turns: 134 total (avg 5.8/run)
  • Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 (Anthropic)
  • Cache analysis: 3,789K read / 749K write → 83% reuse rate ✅
  • Error rate: 6/23 runs (26%) ⚠️

Secret Digger (Claude)

  • Runs: 7 (§24012669686, §24011656105, §24010635315, §24009579929, §24008628142, §24007580596, §24006466570)
  • Total tokens: 884K (avg 126K/run)
  • Effective tokens: 343K
  • Estimated cost: $3.60 (avg $0.51/run)
  • Turns: 21 total (avg 3.0/run)
  • Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 (Anthropic)
  • Cache analysis: 265K read / 274K write → 49% reuse rate ⚠️ — cache writes exceed reads on every run; cross-run caching is not occurring
  • Error rate: 0/7 runs (0%) ✅
  • Note: Very consistent runs — cost ranges from $0.49 to $0.54/run with nearly identical token counts, suggesting a deterministic input pattern with no cache warming across invocations.
Runs Without Token Data

6 runs were cancelled before completing and have no token data:

Run ID Workflow Conclusion
§24286063287 Smoke Claude cancelled
§24286063276 Security Guard cancelled
§24280111298 Security Guard cancelled
§24280111303 Smoke Claude cancelled
§24271299885 Security Guard cancelled
§24271238328 Security Guard cancelled

All 6 are cancelled runs — api-proxy data was not collected. No instrumentation changes needed.


Historical Trend

Comparing to the previous report (§1888 covering 2026-04-05 to 2026-04-10):

Workflow Prev Avg Cost Curr Avg Cost Change Prev Avg Turns Curr Avg Turns Change
Security Guard $0.47 $0.22 -53% 8.6 4.8 -44%
Smoke Claude $0.33 $0.19 -42% 6.2 5.8 -6%
Secret Digger (Claude) $0.50 $0.51 ➡️ +2% 3.0 3.0 ➡️ stable

Security Guard and Smoke Claude both show significant cost improvements this period, likely due to improvements in agent efficiency or prompt changes. Secret Digger (Claude) remains flat — the cache inefficiency noted in prior reports persists unresolved.


Previous Report

§1888 — 2026-04-10 report

References:

Generated by Daily Claude Token Usage Analyzer · ● 466.4K ·

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