I INTERCEPTED 3,177 API CALLS ACROSS 4 AI CODING TOOLS. HERE'S WHAT'S ACTUALLY FILLING YOUR CONTEXT WINDOW.

Summary from the TLDR Dev newsletter

Four AI coding tools had their context windows and token usage analyzed while fixing a specific bug in Express.js. Despite all tools successfully solving the bug, their token consumption varied a lot, with Gemini Pro using up to 350,000 tokens compared to Claude Opus's 23,000. Each tool used a distinct strategy: Opus was surgical but carried high tool definition overhead, Sonnet was methodical, Codex efficiently used Unix-like commands, and Gemini aggressively dumped vast amounts of data into its context.