Claude Meter

A native macOS menu-bar app that shows your Claude usage as a Dynamic Island–style pill — your session (5‑hour) and weekly limits, with live reset countdowns, always a glance away.

Built for people who live in Claude Code / claude.ai and want to stop hitting rate-limit walls by surprise.

What it does

A small pill sits in your menu bar (parked beside the notch). It shows how much of your Claude session and weekly limits you've used — color-coded green → red — and counts down to each reset. Hover it for a detail card. It refreshes itself in the background and the moment you look at it.

Features

• Combined pill — session (S) and weekly (W) percentages side by side, tinted by how close you are to the limit.
• Hover card — currently used, weekly used, current/weekly reset countdowns, last refresh.
• Green → red spectrum with automatic black/white text for contrast; every band is customizable.
• Notch-aware placement — pick built-in display, the active screen, the screen under your mouse, or a specific monitor.
• Smart refresh — configurable background interval (60s–30min) plus hover-to-refresh.
• Appearance — System / Dark / Light (the pill stays dark by design); launch at login; optional menu-bar icon.
• Per-model weekly caps — Anthropic caps some models (Fable, Opus…) separately from your all-models weekly limit. The pill shows the all-models number; hover it and every cap is listed, worst first, so you can see the one that's about to stop you.
• Almost entirely local — no account, no usage analytics. One outbound call besides claude.ai: an update check that sends the app version and a random anonymous install ID.

How it works

Claude has no public usage API. Claude Meter reads the same authenticated endpoint the claude.ai website uses — GET /api/organizations/{org}/usage — from inside a hidden WebKit view that carries your normal claude.ai login (a sessionKey cookie stored only in the app's local container). It decodes the session/weekly utilization and reset timestamps and renders them.

Two requests leave your Mac, ever: the usage call to claude.ai, and an update check to claude.sanchitkd.com/ping carrying the app version and a random anonymous install ID. Nothing else.

WARNING: Because it relies on an undocumented endpoint plus your web session, it can break if Anthropic changes things. This is a personal-use convenience tool, not an official Anthropic product, and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. The app checks for a new version on launch and prompts you when a fix ships.

Privacy & security

• No accounts, no usage analytics, no data collection.
• Your Claude session cookie stays in the app's local WebKit store on your Mac.
• The app talks to claude.ai and to claude.sanchitkd.com/ping — the update check. The ping carries exactly two things: the app version, and a random UUID generated on first launch and stored in UserDefaults. It is not derived from you, your account or your hardware; it exists so I can count how many installs are still running rather than how many times apps launch. It's ~40 lines in UpdateChecker.swift — read it.
• Fully open source — read every line before you trust it.

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
• A Claude account (Pro / Max / Team) you can sign into at claude.ai.

Install

Option A — download the app (recommended)

1. Get the latest build from claude.sanchitkd.com — or download directly / browse all releases.
2. Unzip and move ClaudeMeter.app to /Applications.
3. First launch: the app is unsigned, so macOS Gatekeeper will warn you. Right-click the app -> Open -> Open, or go to System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> "Open Anyway." You only do this once.

Option B — build from source

git clone https://github.com/sanchitkd/claude-meter.git
cd claude-meter
./scripts/build-app.sh
open .build/release/ClaudeMeter.app

Needs the Swift 6 toolchain (Xcode 16+) and macOS 14+.

First run & sign-in

On first launch a "Sign in to Claude" window opens.

• Use Email sign-in (enter your email -> one-time code).
• Google sign-in won't work here — Google blocks OAuth inside embedded app windows (their anti-phishing policy). Use email.

Once you're in, the window closes automatically and the pill fills with your usage. The session persists across launches. If it ever expires, right-click the pill -> Sign in to Claude.

Using it

• Pill (menu bar): S 42% W 13% — color shows how close to the limit you are.
• Hover -> detail card (and an instant refresh if the data is stale).
• Right-click the pill or menu-bar icon -> Sign in - Refresh - Open Claude - Open Usage Page - Open Logs - Preferences - Quit.
• Gear (top-right of the card) -> Preferences.

Settings

Architecture

Swift Package with two targets:

• ClaudeMeter — the app entry point (@main, accessory activation policy).
• ClaudeMeterCore — everything else:
  • Providers — ClaudeWebSession (WebKit + the usage endpoint), AnthropicUsageProvider, AnthropicUsageModels, ClaudeLoginWindowController.
  • Domain — UsageSnapshot / UsageWindow / UsageStatus, provider protocol, UsageColorPalette.
  • State — UsageStateManager (refresh loop + countdown clock), SettingsManager.
  • UI — IslandView (pill + hover card), UsageColorResolver, SettingsView.
  • Platform — IslandPanelController (the floating panel + screen placement), AppearanceController, SettingsWindowController.
  • Utilities — AppLogger, UsageFormatters.

Development

Compile:

swift build -c release

Run via the app bundle — recommended, because running with swift run has WebKit/CoreAnimation lifecycle issues for this style of app:

./scripts/build-app.sh
open .build/release/ClaudeMeter.app

For a fast rebuild-and-relaunch loop, add an alias to ~/.zshrc (adjust the path to your clone):

alias cm='cd ~/path/to/claude-meter && ./scripts/build-app.sh && killall ClaudeMeter 2>/dev/null; open .build/release/ClaudeMeter.app'

Then just run cm to rebuild and relaunch.

Troubleshooting

• "Sign in to Claude to show usage" -> right-click the pill -> Sign in (use email).
• Can't see the pill -> it may be on another display; Preferences -> Pill Position.
• Logs -> ~/Library/Application Support/ClaudeMeter/ClaudeMeter.log (or Preferences -> Logs -> Show in Finder).

Roadmap

• Auto-update (Sparkle) — today the app only tells you an update exists.
• Live plan name.
• Signed + notarized builds (no Gatekeeper prompt).

Author

Built by Sanchit Dikshit — sanchitkd.com - Dev.to - GitHub @sanchitkd.

Feedback or hi: claude.sanchitkd.com/#send-feedback.

If you use or fork Claude Meter, a star on the repo and a link back are appreciated.

License

MIT © 2026 Sanchit Dikshit. Not affiliated with Anthropic. "Claude" is a trademark of Anthropic.