PromptCrunch vs Anthropic native compaction

Anthropic now offers server-side compaction built into the Messages API. It's free and it's good. Here is where it fits, where it doesn't, and when you genuinely don't need us.

Try it free How PromptCrunch works

Same idea, different scope

Both summarize older conversation history so you stop re-paying for it. The differences are cost, coverage, and control.

Anthropic native compaction

Built into the Anthropic Messages API.
  • Free. No extra service, no extra vendor. The summarization happens server-side as part of your request.
  • Anthropic only. Works on the Anthropic API for newer Claude models. It doesn't exist for OpenAI, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, or self-hosted models.
  • Beta, with integration work. Requires the compact-2026-01-12 beta header, and your client must append the returned compaction blocks back on every turn or the state is silently lost.
  • Model-gated. Available on recent models (Fable 5, Opus 4.6+, Sonnet 4.6+). Older or cheaper models aren't covered.
  • Triggers near the context limit. It's designed to keep very long conversations under the context window, not to minimize your bill on every mid-length conversation.

PromptCrunch

A proxy in front of any provider.
  • Cross-provider. Anthropic, OpenAI, and anything OpenAI-compatible, including self-hosted stacks. One integration covers all of them.
  • No beta header, no block bookkeeping. Swap the base URL and add one header. Your message-handling code doesn't change.
  • Compacts for cost, not just fit. Optimization kicks in well before the context limit, which is where the 60-75% benchmark savings on long conversations come from.
  • Per-conversation dashboard. Before-and-after token counts, dollar savings, and model breakdowns for every request.
  • The catch: it's a paid proxy. Flat subscription from $29/mo, and your traffic routes through a third party (with a zero-retention mode on paid plans).

Our honest recommendation

All-Anthropic stack, recent models, comfortable with a beta header and appending compaction blocks? Use native compaction. It's free, it's first-party, and paying us for roughly the same mechanism would be silly.

Multi-provider or OpenAI-compatible stack, older models, or you want savings visibility without integration work? That's where a proxy earns its subscription: one base-URL swap covers every provider, and the dashboard shows you exactly what it saved per conversation.

Try both. Keep whichever saves more.

$5 free credit, 100 requests/day. No card.

Try it free vs prompt caching