How Framework Boilerplate Became Your Hidden AI Cost Multiplier

A Wasp benchmark reveals that framework architecture now dominates AI development costs—identical features cost 80% more in Next.js than Wasp due to boilerplate overhead that inflates token usage on every LLM call. Beyond cost, excessive context consumption degrades AI output quality before even reaching capacity limits. Context efficiency has emerged as a critical framework evaluation criterion alongside traditional metrics like developer experience and ecosystem maturity.