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John
John

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Why I Built TokenBar: the hidden cost of AI is the one nobody tracks

I built TokenBar because AI usage is invisible until the bill lands.

If you use Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any token-based workflow all day, the real pain is not the price per token. It is the slow leak. A few prompts here, a few retries there, and suddenly your "cheap" workflow is burning real money.

TokenBar is a tiny macOS menu bar app that shows your live token usage so you can:

  • see what each task is actually costing
  • catch runaway prompts before they get expensive
  • compare tools and workflows in real time
  • make smarter decisions without opening another dashboard

It is a $5 lifetime app. No subscription. No account required.

I built it for people who are already paying for AI and want to keep that spend honest.

If that sounds useful, the site is here: https://tokenbar.site

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