Budgeted Cache Repair for Cross-Context KV-Cache Reuse
Cross-context KV-cache reuse predicts a shared segment's keys and values under a new prefix instead of recomputing them, and has been reported to do so without quality loss. We find otherwise, and identify two problems. (1) A hidden cost: on MMLU and GSM8K, reuse costs substantial accuracy. (2) A decision at the wrong unit: no rule for deciding whether to reuse a cache removes that cost. What does help is choosing which parts of the cache to recompute, and the value of choosing well falls as the unit of choice grows: informed selection removes 49.5% of the cache error beyond chance at single rows (one token's keys and values), 10.6% at 64-token chunks, and nothing at the level of whole ca...
| Authors | Haeyong Kang, Chang D. Yoo |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AR |
| Published | 27 September 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 8 October 2026 |
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