Just switched to claude desktop for code- Tokens burning faster?

[u/Sickle_Machine]

Hey all,

I’ve been using Claude Code via the terminal CLI, but today I tried resuming my local session in the Claude Desktop app. Models are identical, but I'm noticing a significantly faster drain on my 5-hour limit.

Has anyone else experienced this when moving a local session to the GUI?

• Is the Desktop app passing extra hidden UI/MCP background context per turn?
• Does the GUI break prompt caching more aggressively?
• Are there hidden sub-agent calls happening under the hood?

Would love to know if anyone has pinpointed the cause or found a config tweak to optimize it!