The Token Economics of an Agent Loop

Under the inputs supposed below, a 10-step Desk run sends 141,000 tokens. A 20-step run sends 462,000 tokens, and a 40-step run sends 1,644,000 tokens.

The run length grew by a factor of 4, but the tokens grew by a factor of about 11.7. Whether an agent is affordable often depends on that gap, which comes from the design of the loop rather than the model's price. This lesson derives the bill for one run, finds its fastest-growing part, and shows what caching and compaction change about that growth.