# How HCP-MAD Cuts Multi-Agent Debate Costs by 71% Without Losing Accuracy

- slug: how-hcp-mad-cuts-multi-agent-debate-costs-by-71-without-losing-accuracy
- date: 2026-04-14
- category: Agentics

The USTC paper shows that consensus-as-stopping-signal resolves 80% of queries at 980 tokens — less than a fifth of what standard multi-agent debate burns through. The real story: MAD was never broken, it just had no off switch.

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