Connectors silently consume tokens on every API call — no warning, no disclosure, caused work disruption

Problem

Claude.ai Connectors (MCP remote tools) silently increase token consumption on every single API call, even when the connected service is never used. There is zero warning or disclosure about this cost anywhere in the UI.

This is not a minor inconvenience — this directly caused my work to be interrupted when my weekly quota ran out prematurely due to token overhead from services I never once used.

What happened

I connected 5 services (Mixpanel, Notion, Canva, Airtable, Excalidraw) through the Connectors page. The UI gives every impression that connecting is cost-free until you actually use the service — there is no warning, no tooltip, no documentation stating otherwise.

Reality: Each connector injects its tool definitions into the system prompt of every API call. These 5 unused connectors added ~86 deferred tool definitions that were silently transmitted on every single call.

Over a session with 508 API calls, these unused tool definitions were sent 508 times. This consumed a significant portion of my weekly quota, causing me to hit my limit days early, interrupting active work mid-task.

The numbers

| Connector | Tools injected per call | Times actually used |
|-----------|------------------------|---------------------|
| Canva | ~30 | 0 |
| Mixpanel | ~25 | 0 |
| Notion | ~14 | 0 |
| Airtable | ~12 | 0 |
| Excalidraw | ~5 | 0 |
| Total overhead | ~86 tools per call | Never used |

After disconnecting all unused connectors + cleaning up unused skills and bloated permission rules, the system prompt shrank by an estimated 30-40%.

Impact

1. Work disrupted — I hit my weekly limit days ahead of schedule. Tasks I was working on were cut off mid-progress, costing me real productivity and time.
2. No way to know — There is absolutely no indication in the Connectors UI that connecting a service has any cost. I only discovered this after hours of investigating why my usage was abnormally high.
3. Paying for nothing — I'm on a Max plan (5x). A significant portion of my paid quota went to transmitting tool definitions for services I connected but never used. Not once.

This is a disclosure failure

• The "Connect" button implies zero-cost availability. It does not say "this will increase your token usage on every API call."
• The Usage dashboard does not break down how much consumption comes from connector overhead vs. actual conversation.
• There is no documentation I could find that explains this behavior.
• Users cannot make informed decisions about connecting services when the cost is completely hidden.

What I expect

1. Immediate: Add a clear, visible warning on the Connectors page: "Each connected service adds tool definitions to every API call, which counts toward your usage limit — even if you don't use the service."
2. Technical fix: Implement lazy-loading — only inject connector tool definitions when the user explicitly references or invokes a connected service, not on every single call.
3. Transparency: Show per-connector token overhead in the Usage dashboard so users can make informed decisions.
4. Compensation: Users who connected services they never used should have the wasted quota credited back. I request a usage reset or extension for the quota consumed by idle connectors.

Environment

• Plan: Claude Max (5x)
• Platform: Claude Code CLI + claude.ai
• Model: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context)