Two rows of blocks: cached teal blocks with locks reused from the first request, and new amber blocks computed fresh

Decoding Prompt Caching

The question Have you ever noticed inconsistent response times during a Claude coding session? Or wondered why some API requests drain your credits much faster than others? You’ve come to the right place. If Claude is part of your daily workflow, let’s explore some common habits that might be driving up your token usage and slowing down response time. The mental model If you are a video game player (especially in open-world video games), you are already familiar with checkpoints (save points). You are not starting the game from the very beginning every time you boot your console. When your checkpoint (save point) is not available anymore on your console (for example, it got deleted), you are going to start the game from the very beginning. In the same way, prompt caching works. ...

November 4, 2026 · 6 min · Mohamed Shalan