# One bug. 212,000 tokens.

> The cost is the conversation, not the prompt.

- **Format:** short video, 9 steps, ~51 seconds
- **Topic:** How to save AI tokens in GitHub Copilot — one real Flutter bug asked twice: attaching files and arguing for twelve turns costs about 212,000 tokens, while selecting the method, naming the symbol and asking for a diff costs about 20,000.
- **Author:** Suthahar Jegatheesan (MSDEVBUILD)
- **Category:** GitHub Copilot · copilot
- **Published:** 2026-04-04
- **Tags:** githubcopilot, ai, tokens, flutter, developerproductivity, aicoding, promptengineering, msdevbuild
- **Canonical URL:** https://blog.msdevbuild.com/shorts/copilot-save-tokens-select-name-diff/

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## What you'll learn

- Why a long chat with files attached costs so much
- How selecting and naming a symbol shrinks the context
- Why a diff beats a rewritten file

## Understand it one step at a time

### 1. Plus RM 2

Checkout shows two fee rows. The tracking screen shows one, RM 2 higher.

### 2. Attach and ask broadly

Two screens and the Order entity attached. No symbol named.

### 3. Twelve turns of guessing

Rounding, then the promo, then the cart. Then four whole files returned.

### 4. One grep finds it

createOrder folds the small-order fee into serviceFee on line 43.

### 5. Select, do not attach

createOrder and the two fee getters: 381 tokens instead of 7,591.

### 6. Name the symbol

Both fees, the screen and the method, in a 63-token question.

### 7. Ask for a diff

Fifteen changed lines across four files. A diff, not four files.

### 8. Same fix, a tenth

About 212,000 tokens against about 20,000, for the same fix.

### 9. Select, name it, ask for a diff

One task per chat. Restart instead of arguing.

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## The takeaway

**Select. Name it. Ask for a diff.**

Every turn resends the thread and its files. Keep both small.