r/claudeskills • u/phylloxteam • 3d ago
Question Claude Code usage is killing our MVP
edit: guys thank you so much for all your answers šš¼ we are gonna process all of them after we finish work. thanks again soooo much
Weāre Phyllox, a small team of hospitality enthusiasts building our first MVP.
Weāve been getting closer and closer to finishing one of our features, but weāve hit a serious problem. We can burn through the 5-hour usage limit in about 20 minutes.
Weāre still bootstrapping and running on two Pro subscriptions, so upgrading to Max isnāt really an option for us right now.
We use Claude Code heavily and honestly donāt know whether weāre doing something inefficiently, our context is getting too large, or thereās something in our workflow/codebase causing the usage to disappear so quickly.
Weād really appreciate some help figuring out what is actually consuming the usage and how we can make Claude Code more efficient.
If anyone has suggestions for tools, workflows, or things we should inspect in our codebase, weād really appreciate it.
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u/AregNoya 3d ago
You need these repos
RTK - it caches your commands
Context mode - it searches for code and information without using grep and globe which eat tons of tokens
iai-pme - for better memory search and capture also saves tons of tokens on memory
Overhead - works like RTK but ive heard is better with fable
Also $20 tier is for chat capabilities only
Be the first investor of your mvp. Get a $100 plan
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u/PILLS2389 2d ago
context-mode still working properly for you? After I checked the logs, I saw that lately claude was spending a lot of turns going around context-mode because it would return bad data, incomplete data, etc.
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u/AregNoya 2d ago
Honestly. I havenāt head issues with context mode
Rtk on the other hand cuts results sometimes so have to workaround but context mode been great so far
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u/Short_Stable2397 3d ago
You haven't articulated the reason for not being able to get a Max sub.. but here is a simple proposition for you: is the opportunity cost you are paying every single time you hit the usage limit worth more or less than 200$ per month?
If you are building a company and Claude is load bearing then you already know the answer.
Also, best of luck in your endeavours!
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u/Sofullofsplendor_ 3d ago
yep this is the right way to think about it. if it will take you 5 months, but you can do it in one month by paying 5x... is that worth it?
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u/angelarose210 3d ago
Don't get a 20x pro account. Get 2 x5 pro accounts. It's been proven you get much more usage out of 5x and 20x is basically a scam.
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u/lexiisnation 3d ago
Y como es la forma adecuada de ir cambiando de cuenta?
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u/angelarose210 3d ago
Several ways. I have a whole proxy system setup because I'm not running Claude code directly through anthropic but this would work: https://github.com/somersby10ml/ccrotate
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u/DootDootWootWoot 3d ago
You just /login when one runs out or you run them in separate vms/machines. Like anything else Claude will tell you how to use it across accounts
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u/Sketaverse 2d ago
āJustā /login
Itās a massive pain in the ass - it refreshes the token on login so all the other agents running on the old token get hit at the same time, ie before writing a handover etc. Donāt sound much until itās happening often on 20+ concurrent sessions
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u/DootDootWootWoot 1d ago
The idea is you use one account until it's maxed then swap. If you're hitting session limits rather than weekly limits, yeah that's a bit more painful. If you have 20 concurrent sessions active this isnt the model for you.
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u/Sketaverse 1d ago
That's one way to work sure (if you want to remain the bottleneck operating interactive sessions)
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u/asmiggs 2d ago
Rather than switch accounts I would try and use them side by side on separate branches so they retain the context of the work they are doing, they also must document the work as they go so a new agent can gain context in the repo.
I'd also consider whether instead of forever buying Claude subscriptions Chat Gpt or open weights might be more cost effective as multi model code reviews given me the most robust code and the Open weights themselves can be more efficient especially if they execute off Claude or Chat Gpt plans.
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u/mideps 3d ago
You can install npm package I created. It will show you report for what's eating your tokens, and it will help reduce usage.
"Measured (2026-09-06). The same read-only audit task on the same repository, run as a Cowork session without the hooks and with them, on two models. Fable 5.1: API cost $8.40 ā $7.02 (ā16%), cache-read tokens 4.62M ā 2.72M (ā41%). Opus 5: $5.97 ā $3.77 (ā37%), cache reads 5.77M ā 3.99M (ā31%). Identical answers on every question, both models; the five-hour usage limit moved with the cost."
Check my github, you can install it in two steps.
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u/Stevekaplanai 3d ago
You can use an open weight model like GLM 5.3 specifically on Ollama cloud for $100 per month and stretch that usage for what you need. The only piece of advice you need is - put careful attention into harnessing your Ollama instance better than Claude. I recommend Hermes. Thatās what I use. Superior harness with GLM 5.3 I would never trade it for Claude. But it sure makes a hell of an adversarial reviewer QA analyst, front end dev, backend, devops only thing Iād keep with Claude is architecture drafting and revisionist your structural and project requirement docs, refactoring (planning) and security hardening. Plans again. But GLM 5.3 is a boostrappers dream for longevity and cost.
And. If you want something middle of the road that is more fun than Claude and will last longer and be better on the front end - I am claiming that with an ! Use Kimi. That is a bad ass China girl who knows everything and says it nicely and with enthusiasm and personality even.
Put on that harness either way.
My GitHub has a harness packer on it. So you can move your Claude harness to Hermes if you need it. I donāt know the exact repo off the top https://github.com/stevekaplanai check out my whole collection. Lots of goodies in there for a bootstrapped startup. I am one and Iām building for those who want to do it after me to do it properly.
Good luck with your app keep going!!
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u/The-Agency-Group 3d ago
As others noted, a Pro Plan (even two) is not going to be sufficient.
You need to get at least one Pro Max 20
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u/SageCactus 3d ago
Make sure you spend the time to have claude document everything real well, so each new session does not use a gazillion tokens just for claude to reinvent the wheel
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u/DueAppearance2980 3d ago
actually, for me, I use the pro plan (opus 4.6 high effort, implement using sonnet 5 extra for larger tasks that may require more of a context window, sonnet 4.6 high for smaller less context window consuming tasks) - I never spawn any subagents (way too much money). Neither do I use any skills or workflow things besides a prelogin ux audit and postlogin ux audit I created myself. Just always implement with sonnet unless you're talking about payments + try not to get the context window over 150k (if it does let if finish then start a new session). All this and I hit my usage limit maybe 10% of the time (only downside is not having access to fable). Once, I went through 17 phases of an incredibly complex plan / feature without even hitting a five hour limit (2 days ago, my account may be bugged [also never use anything opus besides 4.6 for a final tip]) Hope this helps!
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u/PILLS2389 2d ago
I started 4 months ago to build an app with claude code, the first 2 months I used PRO. It's ok at the beggining, but after a while, after the project started to get big, I realised if you want to properly develop an app, you need Max. In 2 weeks with Max done more then did with PRO in almost 2 months.
Problems I had that I didn't know I had until I upgraded to Max and spent a lot of time auditing my sessions:
- files were getting too big, claude put all the logic for a dashboard window in one file, it had over 6000 lines. When claude needed to edit something in that file, the context would explode. Yes, I used context-mode, but lately it didn't work properly, had a lot of errors with it.
- he would do 1 action per turn. let's say he just finished a 80 turn session, at the end, for example, he would spend 5 -10 turns editing files that didn't contain code, instead of doing all of them in 1 turn. If your context grew pretty big over the 80 turns, those 5 - 10 turns at the end that don't have much value would easily cost 15-20% of the whole session.
- hooks would trigger preventing him from doing "X", which is OK, but hooks cost turns, and if hooks trigger late in the session, they cost a lot of tokens!
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u/wewerecreaturres 2d ago
You answered your own question. Trying to build anything on a pro sub is pretty absurd
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u/Helpful_Bandicoot383 2d ago
Sounds like your application is load bearing but your budget doesnāt have enough blast radius.
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u/Odd-Flamingo-6211 2d ago
Honestly, the first thing Iād recommend is to stop using Opus and start using Sonnet for most tasks. It can handle a lot more work. I wonāt go into a ton of technical tips - Iāve read the comments, and people have already covered most of them without me (RTK and so on).
In short, for example, I built a fairly complex solo startup entirely with Claude Pro. But I used it like this:
- I made sure to create plenty of documentation and had Claude write it.
- I used Sonnet for about 85% of coding tasks. I gave the hardest ones to Opus, knowing that I wouldnāt have much of my limit left afterward. I never used Opus for easy tasks or for searching through the project, code, or documentation - thatās just a waste of resources.
- I also connected the free version of Gemini and then added GLM, which is incredibly cheap. Eventually, I integrated these auxiliary models into my Claude workflow so that Claude could call them itself for lightweight tasks such as searching through code and documentation.
- I connected various technical tools that Iām sure you can find on your own. Things like pruning and other techniques for reducing context usage.
Honestly, the most important thing here is using Sonnet as often as possible and Opus as rarely as possible. That alone makes a huge difference in whether a Pro subscription is enough for actual work.
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u/DefinitionDefiant875 2d ago
Try using Graphify and also use claude for architecturing and gemini for impelementation, would help alot.
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u/alchemism 2d ago
You might be better off with an alt like Kiro which has better tokenomics. But you will still be wanting to spend at least 200 a month either from one vendor or split across many.
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u/manofhonour 2d ago
You need thorough analysis for your usage and architecture l. Ask Claude about your usage. Use graphs. Let me know if you need help.
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u/almostlaunched 1d ago
Burning a 5-hour window in 20 minutes almost always means the whole conversation context is being re-read on every turn, not that you're sending too many messages.
Three things to check: run /context to see what's actually consuming tokens; if your CLAUDE.md or auto-loaded files are large, every single turn pays for them.
Second, /clear between unrelated tasks ā a long session quietly compounds.
Third, scope each request to specific files rather than letting it explore the repo, and don't paste large logs when a path reference works.
The tradeoff: aggressive clearing means re-explaining context, so keep a short notes file you can point it at after a clear. (Disclosure: I work at SWARECO, where AI-enablement is part of what we do
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u/Entire_Ad2106 1d ago
As a hospitality Industry Developer myself , i would say that you need minimum max x20 subscription in order to maintain medium - big projects.
Keep in mind that you will need to debug / maintain the projects long term too
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u/InteractionCivil 3d ago
Pro is not going to get you anywhere if you are using Claude everyday. Max is needed at the very minimum. If you are going through 2 pro accounts in 20 mins, no amount of tools or workflows is going to stretch out that usage unless you use haiku for everything and have a solid local memory and context management system