GoKawiilBenchmark tests find RTK's token-saving claims don't hold up on cost
RTK, a popular tool with over 79,000 GitHub stars that compresses terminal output before AI coding agents read it, has been marketed as a way to cut AI coding costs, with one viral post claiming up to 60% token savings. But independent benchmark testing using Terminal-Bench 2.1 across 1,740 task attempts found mixed results: costs dropped 5% for one model setup but rose 5% for another, contradicting the widely shared savings figures.