# An experiment compares AI agent performance with and without Agent Skills

DevFeed: [An experiment compares AI agent performance with and without Agent Skills](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/your-ai-agent-doesn-t-need-to-research-it-needs-to-know-23605.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.apollographql.com/blog/your-ai-agent-doesnt-need-to-research-it-needs-to-know>)

Author: Dale Seo

Published: 2026-04-07T09:00:00Z

Content type: comparison

Language: en

Sources: [Apollo Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/apollo-blog.md>)

Topics: [Agent Skills](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/agent-skills.md>), [AI Agent](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-agent.md>), [MCP Server](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mcp-server.md>), [GraphQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/graphql.md>), [Claude Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude-code.md>), [Claude](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude.md>)

Tags: [agent-skills](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agent-skills.md>), [ai-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agents.md>), [apollo-mcp-server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apollo-mcp-server.md>), [claude](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude.md>), [claude-code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude-code.md>), [graphql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/graphql.md>), [mcp-server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mcp-server.md>), [skills](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/skills.md>)

## AI overview

A controlled comparison found that Agent Skills reduced an AI agent's token consumption from 65,000 to 24,000 and cut completion time from five minutes to under two while producing the same result.

## Source excerpt

Apollo Skills cut AI agent token usage and completion time down significantly -- same result, far less cost. Here's what the experiment revealed.