텍스트를 이미지로 다뤄 Claude Code 비용 70% 절감
개발자 steven chong이 텍스트를 png로 압축해 claude code 비용을 최대 70%까지 줄이는 오픈소스 도구 pxpipe를 공개했습니다. anthropic의 이미지 가격 정책을 활용해 토큰 경제에 균열을 내는 시도입니다.
developer steven chong released pxpipe, an open-source proxy that intercepts requests to claude code and compresses static context like system prompts and tool documentation into dense pngs. this method exploits anthropic's fixed pricing for image tokens versus character-based text tokens, allowing users to pack approximately 3.1 characters per token and achieve average savings of 59 to 70%. in one documented fable 5 demo, session costs dropped from $42.21 to $6.06, though the method introduces latency and risks garbling exact strings like hashes. the tool defaults to claude fable 5 due to its superior ocr accuracy compared to opus 4.7 or gpt 5.5, signaling potential pressure on ai labs to restructure vision pricing tiers if such usage becomes widespread.