Claude Code sends 33k tokens before it even reads your prompt; OpenCode uses 7k
A blog compared token usage between Claude Code and OpenCode on identical tasks. The trigger was a simple observation: after switching from OpenCode to Claude Code, the usage counter climbed noticeably faster.
To check the hunch, the authors dropped logging between the agent and Anthropic’s endpoint and captured every request along with its usage blocks. Their numbers: Claude Code fires off around 33k tokens before it reads the actual prompt, while OpenCode gets by on roughly 7k.
They pin the gap on Claude Code’s less efficient caching strategy and the harness’s heavier overhead of housekeeping tokens. There’s one caveat they add near the end of the post. The Hacker News thread drew 46 points and 16 comments.
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