Interpretation
Higher token bloat usually means the primary content is a smaller portion of the overall HTML/DOM text. This can hurt extractability and can cause AI systems to focus on repetitive UI instead of your core message.
Common causes
- Heavy nav/footer components repeated across templates.
- Large inline JSON blobs or config/state.
- JS-rendered apps that output a lot of chrome with little initial content.
Fixes
- Ensure main content is present in the initial response (SSR where possible).
- Reduce duplicated boilerplate and remove unnecessary inline payloads.
- Keep headings and primary text early in the DOM.
Where it appears
In JSON reports, inspect token_bloat_ratio (field name may evolve; treat the report JSON as the source of truth).