A few months ago I did the thing a lot of solo devs do when they are trying to be responsible: I opened a dashboard.
I had just shipped a small AI feature and wanted to know what it was costing me. I expected a clean answer. Instead I got three tabs, a pile of numbers, and that weird little feeling that I was already behind on my own software.
That annoyed me more than the bill.
I do not need a finance meeting every time I ask an LLM a question. I do not need another browser tab to tell me I am spending money. I need the number where I am already working, because that is where bad habits happen. In the editor. In the terminal. In the middle of a coding session when you think, "one more prompt" and then somehow it is 1:14 AM.
That was the original spark for TokenBar.
I built it because I wanted the thing I was missing: a tiny menu bar app that stays visible while I work. No ceremony. No dashboard detour. Just a live read on token usage so I can catch myself before a harmless experiment turns into a surprise bill.
It sounds small, but small is the point. If a tool is annoying to check, you will not check it. If you have to leave your workspace to look at your costs, you have already lost the moment where the decision matters.
That is why I care about token usage showing up more like RAM usage than accounting software. RAM is right there. You notice it when it starts climbing. You do not go hunting for a report every time you open an app. AI spending should feel closer to that.
TokenBar lives at tokenbar.site if you want to see the idea. I still think the best products are the ones that disappear into the workflow and quietly keep you honest.
For solo devs shipping with AI, that honesty is worth a lot.
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