Tokenmaxxing

Came up with the Vibe Coding when you need to use all tokens as part of your subscription. Have a Vibe Code Agents running at all times. Something that came up on Twitter. Especially in combination with personal agents like OpenClaw and others.

But I think soon, at larger enterprises, the opposite will pop up: “tokensavving”!

Usually, people flex their high token usage, but I don’t think it should be. It shows that you just vibe coding everything, and most likely, outsourcing your thinking as no human can handle the constant context switching.

And also, the narrative is probably driven by companies earning from people and companies spending lots of tokens, as well as LLM providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.

HN Tokenmaxxing Leaderboard, Wes McKinney was number one once he shared in his Mythical Agent Month talk, currently (2026-05-20) #4:

I guess Peter Steinberger might be number one by far, he tweeted a screenshot that shows $1.3 million (603 billions) in tokens in 30 days.

Palantir said in their manifesto:

3. Tokenmaxxing hijacks your value orientation and decreases your institutional fortitude and intelligence. The pursuit of high token usage incentivizes disposable scripts over robust software — with the addictive feeling of false progress. There is a reason why those selling tokens refuse to charge based on value.

Very true. Full manifest at Palantir.

LLM Token Inflation: Why Your AI Bill Keeps Growing

• Y Combinator talk
• Generative AI and its Addiction
• Everyone is Wrong about Tokens - YouTube, ThePrimeagen
  • same as Wes McKinney said in Wes McKinney - Interview Series on ‘How to use AI with DE’ - MotherDuck
  • Old world: buy vs build
    • now: buy vs. build vs. Viber code

Origin: Twitter