Reddit user measures MCP token overhead: 67K tokens consumed before any question
MCP token overhead measurement
A developer on r/ClaudeAI measured the token overhead of their Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and found significant context consumption before any user interaction.
Key findings from the measurement
The developer reported:
- 67,000 tokens consumed before typing a single question
- This represents one-third of their context window just loading tool definitions
- Playwright MCP alone used 21 tool definitions (~13,600 tokens) every session, whether they used a browser or not
- GitHub MCP used ~18,000 tokens idle
Alternative approaches with lower overhead
The developer implemented alternatives:
- Replaced Playwright MCP with a skill that loads on demand, achieving the same capability with roughly 1/7th the context cost
- Used the GitHub CLI (gh) instead of GitHub MCP, which uses ~200 tokens per command instead of 18,000 tokens idle
Comparison between approaches
The developer noted that skills + CLI tools:
- Do the same work as MCP servers
- Only consume tokens when actually used
- CLI tools compose with each other in ways MCP servers cannot
The measurement highlights the trade-off between convenience and context efficiency when using MCP servers versus on-demand tools.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
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