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Claude Code bug inflates token costs by 12x

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A bug in Anthropic's Claude Code extension for Visual Studio Code causes significant cost increases by re-processing images that fail to load. When an image cannot be processed, the extension incorrectly bills the user for cache creation instead of cache reading, leading to approximately a 12x increase in token cost per turn. This issue can rapidly deplete a session's budget, as demonstrated by a session's budget dropping from 100% to 15% in just three replies. A fix has been filed, and a workaround involves clearing the session immediately upon encountering the error. AI

IMPACT This bug highlights potential cost inefficiencies in AI tools that process visual inputs, impacting user budgets and developer attention.

RANK_REASON Bug report for an AI-adjacent tool.

Read on r/Anthropic →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Claude Code bug inflates token costs by 12x

How we ranked this

Signal score
3 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
Bug report for an AI-adjacent tool.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
product, infra
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AI-industry relevance
High
Clearly on-topic for AI-industry coverage.
Story freshness
Breaking (< 6h)
Fresh story with cross-source coverage still developing. Ranking may shift as more sources report.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. r/Anthropic TIER_1 English(EN) · /u/TrentTompkins ·

    The "image could not be processed and was removed" error in Claude Code for VS Code ~12x's your token cost every turn until the session dies. Root cause + fix filed:

    <!-- SC_OFF --><div class="md"><pre><code>Full writeup w/ evidence: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/90363 Short version: when Claude Code says &quot;an image in the conversation could not be processed and was removed,&quot; it's NOT removed from your transcript. …

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