One of my tasks is a skill that fetches my calendar via MCP and slots events into a JSON to be used for an OR-Tools constraint optimizer that finds a workable schedule for something. It then uploads those events to the calendar using MCP when I choose my favorite candidate solution.
I checked token usage for this task last time I ran it. It would’ve cost $29 in API usage with Opus 4.5.
So yea, you’re absolutely right that this stuff isn’t going to go mainstream at these rates.
Unclear what kind of quality you'll get out of it, but since the tokens are all local, kinda doesn't matter if it burns through 10x more for the same outcome.
[0]:https://www.docker.com/blog/clawdbot-docker-model-runner-pri...