Quesma measures RTK over 1,740 agent runs and finds no general cost saving

Sources: primary, discussion
Summary: Quesma published a benchmark of RTK, or Rust Token Killer, a tool with more than 79,000 GitHub stars that filters and compresses terminal output before the agent reads it. The run covers 1,740 agent attempts, names every version under test, and reports roughly $1,500 of tokens spent. Quesma states the widely cited savings figure is RTK's own gain counter, which divides removed output bytes by four rather than counting billed tokens, cites a JetBrains SkillsBench run reaching the same conclusion independently, and sells cost analytics for coding agents.
Why it matters: A tool this widely installed reports its own benefit in removed bytes rather than billed tokens, so a team adopting it for cost control has no measurement that tracks what it is charged.