The hidden cost of AI is not the bill. It is the uncertainty.

I did not build TokenBar because I wanted another app in the menu bar.

I built it because AI spend kept showing up late, and late is a bad time to learn you were expensive.

The problem was never just the dollar amount. It was the uncertainty. You could spend an hour inside a model, feel productive, and still have no real idea whether the work was cheap, normal, or quietly ridiculous.

That is a terrible loop for a solo dev. If the cost is invisible, it is hard to make good decisions in the moment. You keep prompting. You keep iterating. You keep telling yourself you will check later.

TokenBar exists to make that feedback loop visible while you are still working. If you can see token usage in real time, you start asking better questions. You stop using the model as a default reflex. You notice when a task is drifting.

This is not about guilt. It is about clarity.

The best workflows are the ones that tell the truth fast.

If you work with AI all day and want a better read on what it is costing you, TokenBar is for that.

TokenBar: https://tokenbar.site