I was wondering what this little pop up means. I am working with the Plug In from Codex in Cursor. And I was only seeing today this icon. I am curious as to what this refers to. In this chat window I basically only asked for a small UI change (removing a boarder) and in total this was like 500K tokens, which obviously has to be wrong. I always start new Chats as soon as possible to stay within the context window but seeing that I might have burnt 500 K tokens for a simple UI change doesn’t make any sense.
Can someone explain to me what these numbers refer to?
BTW as I started a new chat window to see whether something changed it started again with the same high numbers and didn’t refresh to 0. So there has to be a different meaning to this.
Would be much appreciated.
Greetings Falko
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I was wondering the same thing and had taken the question to GPT5 to make sense out of it/see if it was just a bug. Thankfully, the answer it had was straightforward and simple to understand, as is always the case with GPT5!!
GPT5:
””Short version: the “k” is literal. 751k means ~751,000 tokens, not 75,100. The reason you still got good results is that Cursor didn’t actually feed 751k tokens to the model at once—it retrieved that much candidate context, then sent only what fits the model’s window (e.g., 272k), dropping the rest.
Here’s what’s going on:
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What that fraction/percent is showing
Cursor’s UI shows something like “858k / 272k tokens (315%)”. The left number is the total retrieved/available context for this step (files, chunks, prior turns, summaries, etc.). The right number is the model’s max context for the request. When the left number > right number, Cursor truncates to fit. That’s why it can keep “working” beyond 100%. Cursor+1
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Why the numbers look huge
- Cursor does RAG-style retrieval and may pull tons of chunks before trimming. 2) Providers report multiple token types (input, output, cache write/read). If cache reads are counted, they can dwarf the visibles—people frequently see hundreds of thousands to millions of “cache read” tokens for modest prompts. That can make the numerator look wild even though the paid/critical tokens are much smaller. PulseGeek
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Why the percent “jumps” or drops
Users have reported the small percentage circle spiking then dropping once Cursor prunes the context or re-runs the step. In other words, the UI reflects a moving target (retrieval ➜ prune ➜ send). Cursor staff also note that the usage numbers shown are the ones reported by the model provider and that the dashboard/indicators aggregate multiple tool calls—so they can look inconsistent mid-run. Cursor - Community Forum+1
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Bottom line for your question
If you saw 751k, read it as ~751,000 tokens of potential context, not what the model actually consumed in a single pass. The model only “sees” up to its window (e.g., 272k). Cursor ranks → prunes → sends a subset, which is why it still behaved decently on a small UI fix. Cursor - Community Forum+1
If you want to keep the numbers sane (and often get better answers): select the exact code you’re asking about, unpin noisy files, and keep questions scoped; Cursor’s docs and community recommendations echo this.””
Also, lol at GPT-5 being ‘easy to follow.’ …It is absolutely not. It be like ‘ELI5? More like Explain Like I’m a Recent Undergrad with a solid grasp of technical terminology!!!’
So yeah, I guess that means the best way to know when to start up a new window for Codex is by opening up your heart and tapping into your inner Rick Rubin. Your Vibes. Be one with the vibes, vibe with the vibes, and be the Rick Rubin that we all have within us. And once you are fully aligned and vibing with your inner Rick Rubin (and the Outer ‘Real Life’ Rick Rubin ofc, Praise be!), then the answer will suddenly become So clear as to be unmistakable in what it is. Don’t Question it - Never question the Vibes! Just be the vibes man. Vibe with the vibes. Prompt with vibes.
Or just ask gemini or some other model, that usually clears things right up for me! But had I just gone and done that…..then I never would have gotten to write all of that out. Instead of working on this project. I really need to work on that project…..I’m gonna go back to working on it. Much love!!!
-Stoned Ape <3
Ok, thanks so far. You know what’s funny? I updated to the newest version of Cursor and the icon is gone 
Had I done the update maybe 24 h earlier I would never have seen it.
