# Day nine. 61% gone.

> The tier you choose sets the cost.

- **Format:** short video, 9 steps, ~51 seconds
- **Topic:** Making a 400,000-token monthly AI budget last — why one long agent thread with files pinned can spend most of it, and how routing each task to the cheapest tier (no model, unmetered chat, Copilot on a selection, planned agent runs) makes the month last.
- **Author:** Suthahar Jegatheesan (MSDEVBUILD)
- **Category:** GitHub Copilot · copilot
- **Published:** 2026-03-27
- **Tags:** githubcopilot, ai, tokens, developerproductivity, aicoding, agentmode, softwareengineering, msdevbuild
- **Canonical URL:** https://blog.msdevbuild.com/shorts/copilot-token-budget-route-by-tier/

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## What you'll learn

- What a 400,000-token month means per day
- Why an agent thread with files pinned is so expensive
- How to route a task to the cheapest tier that can do it

## Understand it one step at a time

### 1. 19,000 a day

400,000 tokens over 21 working days is about 19,000 a day.

### 2. Agent by reflex

A registration bug. Agent mode, four files pinned, fourteen turns.

### 3. 225,000 tokens, one thread

Every turn resends the files and the history. 56% of the month.

### 4. Tier 0: no model

Rename, extract, scaffold, look up: a deterministic tool is exact and free.

### 5. Tier 1 and 2: small

Generic questions to an unmetered tool. Code questions to Copilot on a selection.

### 6. Tier 3: agent by plan

Two or three planned agent runs a month, with instructions and Skills in place.

### 7. The same bug, routed

One method selected, three short threads: about 30,000 tokens.

### 8. The month that lasts

Weekly buckets, one planned agent run a fortnight, a reserve for the last week.

### 9. Choose the mode, then type

No model, unmetered chat, Copilot on a selection, or a planned agent run.

---

## The takeaway

**Choose the mode. Then type.**

The tier you pick sets the cost, far more than how carefully you type.