# Someone please explain - Why are cache read and write chargeable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Discussions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2026, 8:22am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/someone-please-explain-why-are-cache-read-and-write-chargeable/153538 "2026-03-04T08:22:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![MidnightOak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/midnightoak/32/77882_2.png) [@MidnightOak](https://forum.cursor.com/u/MidnightOak)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/someone-please-explain-why-are-cache-read-and-write-chargeable/153538/4 "2026-03-04T11:35:54Z")
I’m not an expert, but I think when working directly with some models (not Cursor as a 3rd party), you can enable/disable caching, which if enabled incurs a charge. With Cursor, it seems like they are automatically enabling it or having the model decide when to cache. In regards to the general question why cache costs, I assume because it uses additional resources and is optional. Why caching exists as a separate cost: every time you submit a prompt, if there was no caching, you would have to pay the higher input fees every single time. With caching enabled, it allows you to have multiple prompts within a timeframe that don’t need to resend the same large context input (ie. large text files) with each prompt. So the cost of writing cache and reading cache is generally cheaper then paying the input rate with each prompt. When sending prompts in Cursor, you can see the context grow. I believe this is similar to what is cached, giving you an idea how cache intensive this chain of requests are. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/9/3/93f182c77f517106c2473c755e9042235e02138c.png) Here is a response about caching from a Cursor rep. > [@How to disable Cache Write and Cache Read?](https://forum.cursor.com/t/how-to-disable-cache-write-and-cache-read/118864/2): > > Hi @ok1122 There is no way to disable Cache Read and Write as this is done by AI API providers internally. The reason is that cache reads are saving you cost and avoiding re-processing of data. Cache reads are good as this means that the Chat session including any context (files, rules,..) is already cached and costs 10% of the price compared when the whole chat needs to be processed again after you submit follow-up prompts. Without Cache Reads the cost would go up for the input by 9x approxi… Another helpful post > [@Understanding LLM Token Usage](https://forum.cursor.com/t/understanding-llm-token-usage/120673): > > Here is a detailed explanation of LLM (AI) token usage in Cursor: Tokens are used every time you interact with AI models in Cursor. For transparency, token counts are shown as processed and reported by the AI provider. You can check your usage in ‎Dashboard \> Usage and, if you have Usage Based Pricing, also in ‎Dashboard \> Billing. The dashboard is being improved to show all AI usage of a single request in one line, even when multiple tool calls are combined. Tokens are divided into four group… --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.cursor.com/t/someone-please-explain-why-are-cache-read-and-write-chargeable/153538)._