Claude Code: background subagents now cost far less of your usage

Anthropic's ClaudeDevs account says background subagents in Claude Code used to re-read their whole conversation every 30 seconds for the status line; now Haiku 5.5 writes the status from short notes, cutting each update by about 99% (Anthropic's figure). Boris Cherny retweeted it. Fact or hype: partly fact. The change is real; the 99% is Anthropic's measurement of status-update cost.

Why it mattersIf you run long Claude Code jobs with background agents, you should burn less of the plan on status chatter. Still measure your own usage; the 99% is Anthropic's.

Curated by Sara Simeone as part of our human editorial coverage. The original sources are linked below; curation is distinct from a Hype or Fact? assessment.

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How we knowCompany figures are labelled as their own claims; anything we couldn't verify is labelled as a report or a claim.