56% of my Claude Code usage was Claude re-reading the conversation

A user analyzed six months of their Claude Code transcripts, finding that 56% of their usage cost was attributed to Claude re-reading previous conversation turns. This cost was calculated at the discounted cache-read rate, not the full input price. To potentially mitigate this, the user suggested compacting earlier conversation history by setting CLAUDE_CODE_AUTO_COMPACT_WINDOW to "200000" in ~/.claude/settings.json.

This is the first user-reported analysis of Claude Code usage costs, specifically highlighting the proportion spent on re-reading conversations even at discounted rates.