Cline's bill scales with how much of your codebase rides along per request: file mentions, workspace context, and plan/act loops on big repos multiply input tokens. Scope the context deliberately and route Plan mode to a cheaper model than Act mode.
Mention the files that matter instead of letting broad workspace context ride along. On a large repo, deliberate scoping is routinely a several-fold input-token difference.
Planning tolerates a value model surprisingly well; execution on gnarly code is where frontier quality pays. Cline's per-mode provider settings make this split a config choice.
When an Act loop keeps failing tests, every retry re-bills the whole context. Set an attempt budget and intervene manually rather than letting it grind.
The provider-agnostic tactics (prompt caching, retry budgets, batch APIs) are in the general playbook.
Big context times many steps: a multi-file task on a large repo re-sends substantial context each step, and a stubborn failure loop multiplies it. Scoped context, a step budget, and a cheaper Plan model are the usual fixes.
Not inherently — but in-editor convenience makes it easy to attach more context than a task needs, and convenience is what bills. The same discipline (scope, compact, route) applies either way.
The structural version of all of this: run Cline on a flat monthly price with unlimited tokens, and the bill stops being a variable to manage. 2-minute Cline setup → · Best models for Cline →