How to Optimize Token Consumption for AI Coding Agents
Your coding agents can keep working long after you’ve closed the laptop... but the meter keeps running, too. Get Gartner’s guidance on governing token consumption, with practical recommendations for engineering leaders who need to make AI coding costs easier to explain, forecast, and control.
What you’ll learn
A bigger token budget only buys you time. This research examines what drives overspending and sets out an operating model for managing it across your engineering teams. Use it to review how your teams work, where controls fall short, and what to ask of your AI coding vendors.
- Identify the patterns behind runaway consumption, with a framework for reviewing autonomy, context, and feedback.
- Assess the trade-offs in model selection and agent autonomy before rolling changes out across teams.
- Turn recommendations into engineering practices, with guidance on governance, success measures, and vendor capabilities.
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Gartner, How to Optimize Token Consumption for AI Coding Agents, Nitish Tyagi and Alec Pallin, May 7, 2026. GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.