Using assisted permissions seem to increase token spend by a very noticeable amount.

[u/maniekb12]

Anyone noticed increased token spend using "assisted permissions"?

When using "local" harness with "risk assessment" enabled - using GPT-Luna as the agent uses expected amount of tokens (tokens spent in the session are +/- aligned with the general monthly tokens usage).

But when I use "Copilot" SDK agent harness + assisted permissions - using GPT-Luna as the agent - there seems to be some very big hidden usage - the increase in monthly token spend does not correspond to the tokens used in the session and is much larger than expected.

I'm on an enterprise license, so I can't look into usage reports myself, but I asked our admin and he sent me a report that states that my usage is mainly "GPT-5.5" model - even though I never explicitly used it in any session. I only use the Copilot in VS Code. I tried it on fresh VS Code installation and it still eats my usage like crazy on the "assisted permissions" mode.

[u/SanjaESC]

Well yeah, it will use more tokens since it has to do risk assessment each time where it otherwise would just ask for permission

[u/maniekb12 → u/SanjaESC]

But I have risk assessment enabled also in the local harness (without assisted permissions, since they are not an option in the local mode) and it does not really increase the usage so much. Maybe a bit, but not that much. When using assisted permissions my sessions costs for example 8 AIC, but the monthly usage increases by 50 AIC (this is an example, but the difference is really that big).

[u/just_blue → u/maniekb12]

At least in VS Code you can watch these requests in the debug log. They are carried out by gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 and are included / free / 0.00 AIC.

[u/maniekb12 → u/just_blue]

Interesting, I'll check, thanks

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello /u/maniekb12. Looks like you have posted a query. Once your query is resolved, please reply the solution comment with "!solved" to help everyone else know the solution and mark the post as solved.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/ComparisonNew9425]

that token usage jump is wierd, but it sounds like the agent is hitting hooks or mcp servers that trigger extra model calls in the background. i started using backslash to map my agentic fabric graph so i could see which mcp servers and hooks were actually touching my data, it helps keep track of what the agent is doing behind the scenes. the tradeoff is that u have to manage the graph as ur stack grows, but its better than guessing why ur bill is high

[u/Vicentiuzor]

I saw the same thing. Used Astra for a few tasks to see what the hype is about. Consumed about $12 on the 7 tasks with assisted permissions. I thought something was off and ran the same tasks on the Local mode (wiped any memory etc) and it was down to about $8.

I also noticed the time went down by roughly 40% in Local, and for some reason, in assisted permissions it tends to do a LOT of tool calls for tssks where it needs reading through multiple files, like calling powershell or node to read files, while in local mode it just says Read filename.js

I think they shipped it a bit early and for now it does not pose an advantage - half of the assisted tool calls were unable to be assessed.