Arena analyzes 26,225 Agent sessions: without caching, agent costs are 3.6 times higher
Arena analyzed 26,225 Agent sessions, 30 agents, and 13 labs from September 12 to October 23, 2026, and found that if billed at the full input price, the typical task cost for the top ten agents would be 3.6 times higher, and 592% higher on MiMo V2.6 Pro. For agents, 86% to 96% of tokens are repeatedly read context, while their own output accounts for only 1% to 2%. Cache invalidation increases the typical task cost by about 5%, and on Claude Fable 5.1, 1 in every 10 sessions sees an increase of more than 18%.
Arena analyzed 26,225 Agent sessions, 30 agents, and 13 labs from September 12 to October 23, 2026, and found that if billed at the full input price, the typical task cost for the top ten agents would be 3.6 times higher, and 592% higher on MiMo V2.6 Pro. For agents, 86% to 96% of tokens are repeatedly read context, while their own output accounts for only 1% to 2%. Cache invalidation increases the typical task cost by about 5%, and on Claude Fable 5.1, 1 in every 10 sessions sees an increase of
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