I did not build TokenBar because I love counting tokens.
I built it because the bill showed up before the warning did.
That is the ugly part of AI costs. They are easy to ignore when you are shipping fast, and expensive to understand after the fact.
What I wanted was simple:
- see usage while I work
- notice a spike before it turns into a surprise
- keep the cost visible enough to change behavior
TokenBar sits in the Mac menu bar and shows token usage in real time. Not as a dashboard I will check later. Right there, where I already am.
The lesson for me was bigger than the app:
If cost is hidden, you will spend by accident.
If attention is hidden, you will lose it by accident.
That is why I keep building for visibility.
For TokenBar, that means cost visibility.
For Monk Mode, it means blocking the feeds and prompts that eat the day.
Different products. Same idea: make the thing that hurts obvious enough to stop doing it.
If you have had a surprise AI bill, you probably do not need more dashboards. You need the number in front of you while you work.
That is TokenBar.
Top comments (0)