[BUG] Massive discrepancy between actual token usage and subscription usage metering (26% of Teams Premium for ~$4 of tokens)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Summary

A single Claude Code conversation consumed 26% of my Claude Teams Premium subscription, but third-party
token tracking (ccusage) reports only ~$4 of actual tokens (180 input, 33K output). There is a ~50-75x
discrepancy between metered subscription usage and actual token consumption.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.119
• Model: claude-opus-4-6 / effort level: high
• Plan: Claude Teams Premium
• OS: macOS Darwin 25.4.0, arm64 (Apple Silicon)
• Node.js: v20.19.4

What happened

Over the course of a single conversation (~10 turns), my subscription usage meter increased by 26%. The
conversation involved:

1. Investigating a cache policy question (spawned one Explore agent)
2. Analyzing token usage / context sizes (file reads, bash commands)
3. Optimizing CLAUDE.md files (file writes/edits)
4. Investigating what's causing the high usage

The actual token usage per ccusage:

• Input tokens: ~180
• Output tokens: ~33,000
• Estimated cost at API rates: ~$4

Yet the subscription meter shows this consumed 26% of the session allocation, according to the /statusline about ~$200-300 worth of usage at whatever internal rate is being applied.

Conversation statistics

• Turns: ~10 user messages, ~10 assistant responses
• Tools used: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Agent (Explore), ToolSearch
• Subagents spawned: 2 (one statusline-setup, one Explore agent)
• Files read: ~15 files (CLAUDE.md files, rules files, settings)
• Files written/edited: 7 files (CLAUDE.md optimizations)
• Total context loaded per turn: ~52 KB of CLAUDE.md + rules files (before optimization), plus system

prompt, MCP tool definitions (~50 deferred tools), 5 enabled plugins, memory files

Context that was loaded

• Root CLAUDE.md: 12.4 KB
• api/CLAUDE.md: 5.9 KB
• app/CLAUDE.md: 8.5 KB
• specs/CLAUDE.md: 3.0 KB
• 7 rules files: 26.3 KB total
• Memory files: 3.3 KB
• MCP servers: XcodeBuildMCP (30+ tools), ios-simulator-screenshot, Atlassian, GitLab, Linear, Slack
• Plugins: android-reverse-engineering, frontend-design, swift-lsp, vercel, claude-mem

Configuration

{
"model": "opus-4.6",
"effortLevel": "high",
"teammateMode": "in-process",
"enabledPlugins": 5,
"hooks": 2 (Notification, Stop — lightweight shell scripts)
}

Key details

• This issue started ~2 days ago (around 2026-04-24). No settings changes were made.
• The issue reproduces across multiple projects with different context sizes and configurations.
• Dormant sessions: ~1,683 total session files across all projects, though dormant sessions should not

consume tokens.

• The discrepancy is consistent: early in the conversation, a single Explore agent request was reported

as 1% of subscription. By the end, 26% was consumed for what ccusage measures as $4 of tokens.

What Should Happen?

A conversation with ~33K output tokens on Opus should consume a proportional fraction of the
subscription, roughly consistent with the API cost (~$4). Instead it consumed 26% of the session
allocation.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

I'm not sure to be honest, as this issue started since a couple days and I checked with a colleague and he's not experiencing the same issue. So it must a be an edge case scenario which is not easily reproducable.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.119

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

iTerm2

Additional Information

_No response_