RAG guide

Multi-hop RAG compression

Multi-hop RAG answers questions that require multiple retrieval and reasoning steps. Each hop adds more context and more tokens. Compression at each hop keeps the total cost from exploding.

By Arjun Shah - Creator of SuperCompress - Updated 2026-07-03

Multi-hop costs

A 3-hop query might: (1) retrieve the user's account info, (2) retrieve the support ticket history, (3) retrieve the relevant knowledge base article. Without compression, each hop adds 2,000-5,000 tokens. With compression, each hop removes irrelevant content from previous hops.

Frequently asked questions

Should I compress at every hop?

Yes. Compress before each LLM call to prevent context accumulation.

Does compression affect multi-hop reasoning?

No. Only irrelevant content is removed at each hop. Reasoning chains are preserved.

Try it yourself

Paste your long prompt into the playground, ask a question, and see what SuperCompress keeps and removes. Free, no signup needed.

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