MCP Server Schema Overhead Can Cost $2,000/Month — Here's How to Fix It

Connecting a single MCP server added 42,000 tokens of schema overhead per request, increasing costs by 37%. A production agent with four servers burned 80% of its context window on unused tool definitions. Four optimizations, including lazy-loading schemas, reduced overhead by 70% and cut costs from $8.92 to $2.81 per 1,000 requests.