---
id: "prereq-stateless-architecture"
type: "prereq"
source_timestamps: ["00:05:12"]
tags: ["architecture"]
related: ["concept-context-sprawl"]
reason: "Explains why 'context sprawl' causes exponential token growth."
sources: ["s45-claude-limit-chatgpt-habit"]
sourceVaultSlug: "s45-claude-limit-chatgpt-habit"
originDay: 45
---
# Stateless Nature of LLMs

## What You Need to Know
LLMs are **stateless**. They do not have persistent memory of a chat session. To maintain a conversation, the chat client must **re-send the entire conversation history** with every new prompt.

## Why It's a Prerequisite
- Explains why [[concept-context-sprawl]] causes **exponential** rather than linear token growth: turn 30 pays for turns 1–29 plus the new prompt.
- Explains why a 20x saving from [[concept-markdown-conversion]] compounds across the lifetime of a chat.
- Explains why [[concept-prompt-caching]] is so valuable — caching is *the* mechanism for getting state-like behavior at fraction-of-cost.
- Explains the urgency behind [[action-start-fresh-chats]]: a fresh chat is the only way to actually evict prior history from the billed context.

## Common User Misconception
Users experience the chat UI as continuous and assume the model 'remembers'. The model doesn't — the **client** does, and the bill reflects this re-sending.