A tiny macOS menu bar tool that shows LLM token usage in real time

John — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:54:22 +0000

If you build anything with the OpenAI or Claude APIs, you probably know the pattern.

You’re experimenting with prompts, testing scripts, or debugging an agent. Everything works fine, but there’s one thing that’s always a little unclear while you're developing:

How many tokens did that just use?

Most of the time you only see token usage later in logs or dashboards. That’s useful for analytics, but it’s not very helpful while you're actively coding.

During development I kept running into the same situations:

• testing prompt changes
• running quick API experiments
• building LLM tools
• debugging responses

And every time I wanted a simple answer in the moment:
“How many tokens did that call just use?”

So I built something extremely simple.

It’s a small macOS menu bar utility that shows token usage in real time while you're working. No dashboards or heavy analytics tools. Just a tiny counter in the menu bar so you can see usage immediately.

The goal was basically:

see token usage the same way you see CPU or battery status.

Nothing complicated, just immediate visibility while building.

If you're curious or want to try it, you can see it here:

https://tokenbar.site

I’d also be interested to hear how other people monitor token usage during development. Do you rely on logs, dashboards, or something else entirely?

Why is tracking LLM token usage still so annoying?

John — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:44:05 +0000

If you build anything with the OpenAI or Claude APIs, you've probably run into this at some point.

You're testing prompts, running scripts, tweaking things quickly… and suddenly you realize you have no real sense of how many tokens you're burning in real time.

You can check dashboards later, sure. But while you're actually developing, it's basically invisible. You run something, it works, and only later do you discover the cost.

I kept running into the same problem:

• running prompt experiments
• testing agents or scripts
• debugging API calls

and having no immediate visibility into token usage while coding.

Most tools that exist are either:

dashboards after the fact

logging solutions

full analytics platforms

But I just wanted something extremely simple: a tiny indicator that shows token usage while I'm working.

So I ended up building a small macOS menu bar tool that shows token usage in real time while you're developing.

No dashboards.
No analytics platform.
Just a token counter sitting in the menu bar.

If anyone else here builds with LLM APIs and finds themselves wondering “how many tokens did that just burn?”, I'm curious if something like this would actually be useful.

You can see it here:
https://tokenbar.site

Would also love feedback from anyone working heavily with the OpenAI or Claude APIs.

DEV Community: John

A tiny macOS menu bar tool that shows LLM token usage in real time

Why is tracking LLM token usage still so annoying?