05/03/2026
I used to burn through my Claude limit
every single week.
Then I learned these 14 tricks:
How you send files matters:
↳ Skip PDFs and screenshots entirely
↳ Copy text into a Google Doc
↳ Download as .md and upload that
↳ One PDF = 1,500-3,000 tokens
↳ Same text as markdown = under 200
How you prompt matters:
↳ Plan in Chat, build in Cowork
↳ Say “Ask me questions” instead
↳ Clicking options costs zero tokens
↳ Typing 500-word prompts costs 500
↳ Batch tasks into one message
↳ 3 messages = 3 full context reloads
How you fix mistakes matters:
↳ Say “Only redo section 3”
↳ Click Edit on your original message
↳ Never send “No, I meant...” messages
↳ Claude re-reads all history every time
↳ Every correction adds to the pile
How you pick models matters:
↳ Use Sonnet or Haiku for small tasks
↳ Save Opus + Extended Thinking
↳ Chat is lightest. Cowork is heaviest.
↳ Don’t pay Cowork prices for Chat work
How you manage sessions matters:
↳ Trim files to under 2,000 words
↳ Only include what Claude needs
↳ Restart instead of following up
↳ 20 messages = 105,000 tokens
↳ 30 messages = 232,000 tokens
↳ Summarize every 15-20 messages
↳ 98.5% of tokens go to re-reading
↳ Only 1.5% goes to the actual answer
How you set up Claude matters:
↳ New topic = new chat. Every time.
↳ Turn off features you don’t need
↳ Use Projects for recurring files
↳ Set Preferences to Concise
↳ Turn off Memory. It costs tokens.
14 tricks that saved my limit.
Most people don’t use Claude too much.
They just waste tokens without knowing.
Fix the waste. Keep the output.
Save this and try one trick today.