Claude 4.8 burns 250% of tokens
Claude 4.8's aggressive tool-calling and thinking behavior causes it to consume approximately 250% of the tokens a simpler answer would require, frustrating users.
Snapshot · God Mode Podcast
EP17: The SpaceX IPO Thesis Just Flipped + Anthropic Passed OpenAI (First Time IRL, w/ Reuben Ferrante)
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Jun 19, 2026
Where this was said
Claude thinks too much (/retardmax)
At 31:00 · chapter starts 30:00
Ben makes a pointed UX critique: since Claude 4.8, the model has become so eager to think, tool-call, and verify that a simple question burns 250% of the tokens you'd expect. [1] — Ben "Claude 4.8 burns 250% of tokens: Claude 4.8's aggressive tool-calling and thinking behavior causes it to consume approximately 250% of the …" 31:00 For a business paying per token, this isn't a feature — it's a cost problem. OpenAI, by contrast, is doing the opposite: shipping faster, thinking less, and just answering. 'OpenAI is retard maxing,' Ben declares. The irony is sharp: the model praised for its reasoning depth is losing everyday users because it reasons too much. Reuben notes that new AI benchmarks are specifically targeting agentic tasks — where deeper thinking does add value — but for most user queries, that extra thinking is dead weight.
Claude Thinks Too Much — OpenAI Just Ships
Claude 4.8 burns 250% of the tokens you'd expect for a simple question, obsessively tool-calling and thinking when a direct answer would do. OpenAI, by contrast, is retard maxing — and users are noticing the difference.
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