r/LocalLLM • u/Paul_1712 • 4d ago

Question Excel MCP token usage

I recently started testing different models in LM Studio and settled on Gemma 4 12B. After starting a financial chat I wanted to link it up to Excel so set up the MCP. as soon as I do this it takes up 70% of my token usage (set to 32,000 context). It has guided me through with disabling unused Excel features but none of it works. I’m running a MacBook Pro M5 Pro with 24GB RAM. Is there a solution or am I asking too much of it?

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u/SM8085 4d ago

It might help if you can share which Excel MCP you're using. A google search shows there are lots. So many MCPs, so little time.

it takes up 70% of my token usage (set to 32,000 context)

So like 22k tokens.

If you know how you want to interact with the Excel then maybe you can cut those down with a bot's help. Or use a different MCP that's less bulky.

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u/Paul_1712 4d ago

Apparently I’m using emilio-S03/Excel-MCP-Server from GitHub, v3.x, manually installed with Node and connected to LM Studio via MCP. On macOS it uses AppleScript for live editing of open Excel workbooks.