Microsoft releases open-source plugin to cut coding agent costs

What's Happening

• Microsoft Research and UC Berkeley released TokenEconomizer, an open-source cost controller for coding agents.
• The plugin lowers mean costs by 18.4% to 30.9% across five agent-model settings on 277 SWE-Bench tasks, according to the research team.
• TokenEconomizer works with Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Pi without modifying model weights or agent code.

Why It Matters

Coding agents waste tokens by reloading tool schemas and full histories on every turn. This plugin reduces that overhead by learning from past sessions and pruning unused tools. Developers save money without sacrificing performance.