What is the best Claude Code usage monitor?

It depends on the question. For what you have spent, broken down by day, session and model, ccusage is the standard answer and it is free and open source. For how much of your window is left while you are working, you want something always on screen, which is what a notch or menu bar app gives you.

Does Noveriq count tokens or show cost?

No. Noveriq shows how much of your session window and weekly window you have used, as a percentage with a reset countdown, plus how much context each session has left. It counts no tokens, reports no dollar cost and keeps no spending history.

Where does the percentage come from?

For Claude Code, Noveriq calls Anthropic's own usage endpoint using your existing Claude Code login, roughly every five minutes. It is the provider's own figure rather than a reconstruction from local session files. The usage meter is on by default and can be switched off.

Do I need a monitor at all?

If you have never been stopped mid-task by a window you did not know was nearly full, probably not. The built-in /usage command answers the question on demand. A monitor earns its place when you want the answer before you need to ask for it.

Guide

Claude Code usage monitor for Mac

"Usage monitor" covers two different tools that get confused for each other. One counts tokens and cost after the fact. The other keeps how much window you have left on screen while you work. Buying the wrong one is the most common way to be disappointed here, so this page separates them first.

The two kinds

	Spend auditor	Window monitor
Answers	What did this cost me?	How much have I got left?
When you look	Afterwards, deliberately	While working, without looking
Reads	Your local session files	Your provider's own record
Shape	A command you run	Something always on screen
Example	ccusage	A notch or menu bar app

If you searched for a usage monitor because a bill or a token count surprised you, you want the first column, and the guide to checking your usage covers it properly. If you searched because Claude Code stopped in the middle of something and told you a window was full, you want the second.

What you already have, for free

Before installing anything, two things are already on your machine.

Inside a running session, /usage reports what that session has consumed and /status reports what the session currently is. Both are instant and neither needs a tool.

# inside a Claude Code session
/usage
/status

And for history, ccusage reads the transcripts Claude Code already writes under ~/.claude/projects and prints reports without an account, an API key or a network call:

npx ccusage@latest
npx ccusage@latest blocks --live

Between them these answer most of the question. A monitor is worth adding only when the problem is that you have to remember to ask.

The window, in the notch

Noveriq is a native macOS app that keeps a usage strip under the MacBook notch. It shows how much of your session window and your weekly window you have used, as a percentage with a countdown to the reset, alongside how much context each running session has left.

The part that matters is where the number comes from. For Claude Code, Noveriq calls Anthropic's own usage endpoint using the login Claude Code already has, roughly every five minutes. It is not reconstructed from the session files on your disk, so it does not drift from what your account actually thinks. Any tool that only parses local transcripts is estimating the thing your provider knows for certain.

It counts no tokens and reports no cost. There is no spending history by day, session or model in Noveriq, and there is not going to be. If a number in dollars is what you want, ccusage is the tool and this app is not a substitute for it.

The usage meter is optional: on by default, switchable off, and one of only three things in the app that make a network request at all. The privacy page lists all three and names the exact credential and URL.

Most of the app is not about usage

The usage strip is one line. What Noveriq mainly does is show every running agent session in the notch: what each one is doing, how long it has been going, and which ones have stopped and are waiting for a human.

When Claude Code asks permission to run something, the card comes forward with the command on it and you approve or deny from there. The agent's hook is blocking on a local socket and your answer travels back down it, so the prompt resolves in place without your terminal ever coming forward. A destructive shell command is flagged before you press. When you do want to be in the terminal, Jump lands on the exact tab or split pane.

That is the actual product; the window percentage is a strip along the bottom of it. Worth knowing before you decide, because if the only thing you want is a usage number, there are free ways to get one.

Questions

Does it work for Codex too?

Yes. The Codex reading comes from the Codex CLI's own rate limit reporting rather than from Anthropic. The Codex usage guide covers that side.

Does it show token counts?

No, and no cost. Window percentage, reset countdown, and context left per session.

Can I turn the usage meter off?

Yes, in settings. It is on by default.

Do I still need ccusage?

If you care what you spent, yes. They answer different questions and plenty of people keep both.

See the window before it stops you

Session and weekly percentage in the notch, read from Anthropic's own record. Plus every session that needs an answer.

Get Noveriq for Mac

$9.99 once · macOS 15 or later · 30 days, money back