AI Token Monitor: macOS Tool Tracks Local Claude Usage and Cost
AI Token Monitor: Local Claude Usage Tracking
A developer has created AI Token Monitor, a macOS menu bar application that monitors Claude AI usage by reading local session files. The tool provides real-time tracking without requiring API keys or account access.
How It Works
The app reads local Claude session files stored at ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl. All data remains on the user's machine, with no information sent to external servers except for an optional leaderboard feature (opt-in) that shares aggregated daily stats only—no code or conversations.
Tracking Results from One User
After 35 days of tracking:
- 6.5M tokens consumed—equivalent to $4,924 at API pricing
- Average of 304K tokens per day across 1,000+ messages
- Model distribution: 78% Opus 4.6, 21% Haiku 4.5, 1% Sonnet 4.6
- Peak day: March 4th with 698K tokens
Features Available
- Real-time cost equivalent display in menu bar
- Daily, weekly, and monthly usage trends
- Model usage breakdown
- GitHub-style activity heatmap
- Cache hit ratio tracking (for prompt efficiency analysis)
- Optional leaderboard for comparing usage with others
Insights Gained from Tracking
The developer discovered:
- Higher Haiku usage than expected, with significant cache reads
- Most productive days didn't correlate with highest token usage
- Weekday vs weekend usage patterns differed substantially
Availability and Feedback
The tool is open source under MIT license and currently available only for macOS Apple Silicon via .dmg download. The developer is seeking feedback on additional useful stats, interest in a Windows version, and experiences with the leaderboard feature.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
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