How can I lower the costs of running my AI agent?

Here are the key ways to reduce your AI agent costs:

• Run less frequently – Schedule tasks hourly instead of every few minutes when possible
• Minimize context size – Only include essential information for the task
• Use agent documents wisely – Store reference info with "Summary" visibility so it's retrieved only when needed
• Simplify instructions – Keep them clear and concise; simpler often works better
• Choose a cheaper model – Switch from Claude Sonnet to a more economical option if your use case allows

For detailed optimization strategies, see our Agent Optimization Guide.