# AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer > Source: > Published: 2026-09-17 11:03:32+00:00 # AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer By Matthias BastianSource: [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com) [OpenAI](https://www.machinebrief.com/glossary/openai) Codex developer Eric Provencher warns that running more than two parallel sub-agents almost always burns tokens without improving quality because agents don't trust each other and end up double-checking everyone's work. He calls this the "coordination tax" and points to a project where 1,393 agents spent $20,000 in tokens on a single Python refactoring that one Astra agent could have handled for a fraction of the cost. The article [AI agent swarms are a massive waste of tokens with zero quality gain, says OpenAI Codex developer](https://the-decoder.com/ai-agent-swarms-are-a-massive-waste-of-tokens-with-zero-quality-gain-says-openai-codex-developer/) appeared first on [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com). Get AI news in your inbox Daily digest of what matters in AI.