... kept noticing that AI spend gets harder to control once a chat is already bloated with stale context, retries, and oversized model choices. So I built TokenBar: a tiny macOS menu bar app that shows live token usage while you work, not after the bill arrives. It is mostly for builders using LLMs all day who want an in-session signal for when to restart, trim context, or switch models. https://tokenbar.site

... that I used tokens. It was that I had almost no visibility while I was actually building. I was jumping between apps, prompts, and models, and the cost only became obvious after the damage was done. So I built TokenBar for macOS. It sits in the menu bar and shows token usage in real time while I work, so I can catch: prompts that are way bigger than I thought model switches that quietly get expensive workflows that look fine ... ... actually worth what it costs me right now?" If you ship AI products, I m curious: 1. where do surprise token bills usually come from for you? 2. do you track usage while building, or only after the fact? TokenBar

... kept testing prompts across Claude and ChatGPT, then checking usage later and realizing I had basically no feel for where the tokens were going. That was the whole reason I built TokenBar for Mac. It sits in the menu bar and shows token usage in real time, so I can see when a prompt, retry, or long context window is about to turn into an expensive habit. It is not a finance dashboard or team analytics tool. It is just ... ... simple way to make AI usage visible while you work. If you are building with LLMs every day, I am curious: do you track token usage live, or only after the bill shows up? TokenBar

... have rate limits, dashboards, and pricing pages open in ten tabs, but none of that helps when you are iterating fast and have no live feel for token usage while you work. That is why I built TokenBar for macOS. It sits in the menu bar and shows token usage in real time so you can actually see what your prompts and model switches are doing while you build. The main thing I learned is that AI cost control ... ... here because I suspect a lot of builders have felt the same pain. If you are building with LLMs, I would love to know what you currently use to keep token costs from getting away from you. https://tokenbar.site

... kept running into the same problem while coding with Claude and Cursor: I could feel usage climbing, but I had no clean way to see the pace in real time until after the damage was done. So I built TokenBar, a small macOS menu bar app that shows live token usage, cost pace, reset windows, and account limits across tools like Claude, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini. The useful part for me has not just been the raw count ... ... lifetime because I wanted it to be an easy utility, not another subscription. Curious how other people here are monitoring usage today. Are you just checking provider dashboards after the fact, or do you have a better workflow? Site: tokenbar.site

... various APIs on top of that. One month I checked and realized I'd burned through $340 on AI tools without noticing. Each provider has its own dashboard and I never checked any of them regularly. So I built TokenBar. It sits in your macOS menu bar and shows your token usage, credits, and resets across 20+ AI providers in one place: OpenAI, Anthropic/Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Copilot, OpenRouter, Vertex AI, and more. Key decisions I made: Local-first: Everything runs ... ... numbers. - Usage alerts: Get notified when spending jumps unexpectedly so you catch runaway scripts before they become a surprise bill. Built with Swift, native macOS. Would love feedback from anyone else juggling multiple AI subscriptions. https://tokenbar.site

... without noticing. Every provider has its own dashboard, its own billing page, its own way of showing usage. I never checked any of them regularly because who has time to log into 5+ dashboards every week? So I built TokenBar. It is a native macOS menu bar app that pulls your usage, credits, and billing data from 20+ AI providers into one glanceable spot. Think of it like your battery indicator but for AI spending. Built with Swift, runs entirely ... ... getting it to market as a solo dev. The building part was fun. The marketing part... still figuring that out. Would love to connect with other makers here who are building developer tools or utilities. Check it out at tokenbar.site

... community! I'm a solo dev who built two native Mac apps to scratch my own itches. Sharing them here in case they're useful to anyone else. TokenBar ( tokenbar.site

... everyone! I just shipped TokenBar a native macOS menu bar app that tracks your AI token usage in real-time across all major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.). If you're a developer spending money on AI APIs, this gives you instant visibility into what you're burning through right from your menu bar. No more surprise bills. Key features: - Real-time token counting across all providers - Lives in your macOS menu bar zero friction - Tracks costs automatically - $5 lifetime ... ... purchase, yours forever Check it out: https://tokenbar.site

... paying for 5 AI subscriptions: Claude Pro, Cursor Pro, ChatGPT Plus, Copilot, and Gemini Advanced. $90/month total. I assumed I was using all of them heavily. Turns out I was wrong. When I built TokenBar (a menu bar app that tracks AI usage limits), the first thing I noticed was that my Gemini Advanced usage was near zero. I'd signed up for it, used it twice, and forgot about it. $20/month for 3 months = $60 wasted. But the bigger ... ... hitting 80%+ of my limit almost every day. Worth every penny. - Cursor: Using about 60% of fast requests. Solid value. - ChatGPT: Maybe 20% usage. I was using it mostly as a Claude backup when rate-limited. - Copilot: Under 10%. VS

... model I use (max mode only too). I usually opt for Codex first then Claude Code as a backup Comment from Daniel Bernasconi(@daniel_bernasconi): @chrismessina  have you tried Claude Code? Do you think Warp is a valid alternative? I know they are a bit different, but with the weekly limits and all coming to CC, I better prepare and incorporate new tech "under my belt".. Cheers Comment from Pedro Marchal(@pedro_marchal): Honestly, I'm team "why choose ... ... Firmly agree with this. Comment from Rajiv Ayyangar(@rajiv_ayyangar): @timsu  Why? Comment from Solal Zanovello(@solal_aegis): As a developer building a high-performance no_std Rust kernel (Aegis Omni-Core) , I ve found that the "Terminal vs

... visibility. Once you start using both heavily, it gets weirdly hard to tell which workflow is actually cheaper because the usage is split across apps, terminals, and tabs. I ended up building a tiny macOS menu bar app called TokenBar because I wanted a live token counter while coding. Not an end of month invoice surprise, just a constant read on what I am burning in real time. My current take: - Cursor for iterative IDE work - Claude Code for bigger ... ... Claude Code feels amazing right up until you stop knowing what a long session is actually costing you. Same with Cursor once you stack retries, bigger context windows, and background experimentation. That problem got annoying enough that I built TokenBar