macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time
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I built a macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time via API after hitting limits mid-flow too often.Signed and notarised by Apple. Open source.https://github.com/richhickson/claudecodeusagehttps://x.com/richhickson
HN · launched Jan 8, 2026 · 161 upvotes (top 5%) · 0 views
Niche: macos menu bar utilities · 312 launches, 20 in the last 7 days ▼ -33% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Analytics & BI
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 312 launches in macos menu bar utilities →
Could you build this?
Yes It is a straightforward native menu bar app (Swift/Electron/Tauri) that queries the Anthropic/Claude API usage endpoints periodically and displays the result.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: mac-stats, Little Snitch, dozen similar solutions (search results), CodexBar
Concerns raised: Authentication/sign-in issues with Claude Desktop and CLI, "Claude usage probe timed out" errors, Not working for non-subscription API users, Hardcoded ARM dependency prevents installation on Intel Macs via brew, Red X icon with expired authentication message
Feature requests: Show clear useful info on top panel (like mac-stats/Little Snitch), Support for Intel Macs/universal builds, Usage limit alerts to prevent mid-process overages
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 559 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #63 of 560 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 49 days after the earliest competitor.
- Mac menu bar app for Claude Code rate limits · hn · 2026-04-15 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.77
- Claude Meter · hn · 2026-02-10 · 9 upvotes · similarity 0.77
- ClaudeUsage · hn · 2026-02-21 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.73
- Claude Usage Bar · ph · 2026-10-22 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.65
- macOS menu bar gauges for your Claude Code quota · hn · 2026-06-10 · 69 upvotes · similarity 0.62
- GitHub · ph · 2026-09-30 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.61
- claude-term · ph · 2026-10-19 · 4 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- Claude Watch · ph · 2026-09-25 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.56
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