サブエージェントのトークン消費が多い：安いモデルを指定するには？

Because each subagent does its own model and tool work, subagent workflows consume more tokens than comparable single-agent runs.

If you don't configure a subagent model or model_reasoning_effort, the subagent inherits the parent agent's model and reasoning effort.

To balance intelligence, speed, and price for each task, request a specific model or reasoning effort in your prompt, configure [agents] defaults in config.toml, or set model and model_reasoning_effort directly in the custom agent file.

Use gpt-5.6-terra when you want a faster, lower-cost option for lighter subagent work.

If a custom agent file sets model or model_reasoning_effort, the value in the file takes precedence.

For simple subagent tasks, specify model: haiku in your subagent configuration.

CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL is a default, so a subagent's definition or a model Claude passes still takes precedence over it. To apply one model to every subagent, teammate, and workflow agent, also set CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL_FORCE to 1.

A user or project subagent named Explore overrides the built-in and keeps its own model field, so define one with model: haiku to keep exploration on a lower-cost model.

Agent teams use approximately 7x more tokens than standard sessions when teammates run in plan mode, because each teammate maintains its own context window and runs as a separate Claude instance.

A single burst of heavy activity, such as a large workflow fanout, can exhaust the weekly allowance before the session window resets.