Last year I opened an AI invoice expecting a normal bill.
It was not normal.
I had been using Claude and OpenAI all day while building, debugging, and rewriting code. The work felt productive. The invoice did not.
What bothered me most was not the total. It was that I had zero visibility while I was actually working. I only saw the cost after the damage was done.
That is why I built TokenBar.
It sits in the macOS menu bar and shows token usage and cost in real time, so I can see when a prompt loop is getting expensive before it turns into a nasty surprise.
What changed for me:
- I catch runaway sessions early
- I choose cheaper models when they are enough
- I stop treating AI spend like a mystery until the invoice arrives
TokenBar is for people who pay per token and want the cost visible while they work, not after.
If that sounds like you, the product is here: https://tokenbar.site
I built it because I needed it. If you have had the same invoice shock, I probably built it for you too.
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