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One pasted file can raise a chatbot API call from $0.006 to $2.03

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A developer priced a typical support-bot request on Claude Sonnet 5.5 at about $0.006, but the same endpoint will accept a request costing $2.03 when a user pastes a large file. Costs are billed per token, and the worst case is set by the context window size multiplied by input prices, plus the output cap. Common triggers include users pasting log files, bugs repeatedly appending documents to prompts, and search steps passing whole files. Token counts also vary by content, with logs producing far more tokens than the usual four-characters-per-token estimate. The analysis found that the cost multiplier tracks the context window rather than the per-token price, so upgrading to a larger-window model can raise the worst-case cost even while lowering the price per token.

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