🪙 #WTT: When Claude Cowork Wakes Up Drinks Your Tokens (like Coffee)

I’ve been cruising along lately, just loving life with Claude Code, but I recently got absolutely humbled by Cowork.

I’ve actually made up a new acronym for the event: WTT.

The reality is, I’m not quite productive enough on Code yet to justify dropping $100 or $200 a month in tokens. So, I’ve been managing my token "allowance" like a kid who gets $5 a week when candy bars cost $2.

Everything was going great until a buddy asked me to show him the ropes on Cowork.

Being confident (and perhaps a bit too proud), I said, "Sure!" I didn't mention I’d never actually run this specific workflow before. I figured—how hard can it be?

I set up a scheduled task to roll through my Gmail account and give me a daily briefing.

Awesome.

Easy.

Total "Pro" move.

So, I’m showing off, doing this very impressive demo for him, and I hit "Run Now." I’m leaning back, like: "Look, you can see it thinking... it’s reading the email, producing the brief, preparing the summary..."

DONK. 💥

OUT OF TOKENS!

WTT (What the Token?!)

And then it hits me: I cannot Code. I cannot Chat. I cannot Cowork.

#WTT

Thinking on my feet, I started to explain, "You see, managing tokens is just a sophisticated part of the LLM lifestyle," all while seething under the covers.

So, that was yesterday.

I decided to shrug it off, tough it out, and wait for the rolling reset while I slept.

☀️ The next morning, I was all fired up to get back into Claude Code to build my slick new app. I sat down, opened the terminal, and...

DONK. 💥

OUT OF TOKENS!

#WTT

Then It hit me...

🤖 Claude Cowork had woken up before I did. It chewed through my entire brand-new allowance of tokens just before I was all fired up to "Claude Code.".

I cannot Code. I cannot Chat. I cannot Cowork.

#WTT

The ultimate irony? I couldn’t even grammar-check this post in Claude. I had to go over and do it in Gemini! LOL.

#WTT

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