claude-cost-optimizer

Claude Cost Optimizer

Save 30-60% on Claude Code costs with an installable skill, CLI tools, and 11 deep-dive guides.

Install

Claude Code (official plugin system):

/plugin marketplace add Sagargupta16/claude-cost-optimizer
/plugin install cost-mode@claude-cost-optimizer

Multi-agent (Cursor, Cline, Codex, 40+ agents):

npx skills add Sagargupta16/claude-cost-optimizer

Then activate in any session:

/cost-mode              # Standard (40-60% output token reduction)
/cost-mode lite         # Professional brevity (20-40% output reduction)
/cost-mode strict       # Telegraphic, max savings (60-70% output reduction)
/cost-mode off          # Resume normal behavior

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What cost-mode Does

Feature	How It Saves Tokens
Strips filler	Drops pleasantries, hedging, restating your question, trailing summaries
Suggests cheaper models	"Haiku handles this -- /model haiku" for simple tasks
Suggests CLI tools	"Use prettier/eslint --fix directly" instead of burning LLM tokens
Session awareness	Reminds to /compact after 20+ turns, fresh sessions for new tasks
Minimal code gen	Diffs over rewrites, no obvious comments, no speculative error handling
Auto-deactivates	Full clarity for security warnings, destructive ops, and when you're confused

Technical accuracy is never sacrificed. Code in commits and PRs is written normally.

Full skill documentation

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Rate your setup

Locally, in 5 seconds (recommended)

claude-rate runs on your filesystem -- no signup, no GitHub upload, no network round-trip. Pick whichever runner fits your shell:

# curl one-shot (no Node, no install)
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sagargupta16/claude-cost-optimizer/main/tools/claude-rate/install.sh | sh -s -- .

# curl, persistent install
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sagargupta16/claude-cost-optimizer/main/tools/claude-rate/install.sh | sh -s -- --install

Add --fix to print copy-pasteable fix commands, --strict to fail CI when the grade drops below B, or --json for machine-readable output. See tools/claude-rate/README.md for the full breakdown.

The local rater inspects things the web analyzer can't: real MCP server count from .mcp.json, hooks, .claudeignore coverage gaps vs files actually on disk, accidentally-committed secrets, and cost-mode skill installation status.

Public repos -- web tools

Not live yet. These pages are built in site/ but the deployed site currently serves the landing page only. Until they ship, use claude-rate above.

Tool	What It Does
Repo Analyzer	Paste a GitHub URL to get a cost audit, grade (A+ to F), and recommendations
Cost Calculator	Estimate monthly spend based on your model, sessions, and config
Badge Checker	Score your setup and get a shields.io badge for your repo

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Before vs After

Real project, 30-turn session, Opus 4.8:

BEFORE (no optimization):                 AFTER (5 minutes of setup):
  CLAUDE.md:        6,200 chars (truncated)  CLAUDE.md:        2,800 chars (under limit)
  .claudeignore:    missing                   .claudeignore:    12 patterns
  MCP servers:      6 active                  MCP servers:      2 active
  System prompt:    ~15,000 tokens/turn       System prompt:    ~5,500 tokens/turn
  Session cost:     $2.85                     Session cost:     $1.12
  Monthly (3x/day): $188.10                   Monthly (3x/day): $73.92

  Savings: $114.18/month (61%)

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Quick Start (5 Minutes, No Skill Needed)

Even without installing the skill, these 5 changes cut costs immediately: