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Looking for a ccusage alternative? Read this first
ccusage is genuinely good at what it does. The question is whether what it does — historical token analytics in the terminal — is what you actually came for. Half the people searching "ccusage" really want something else: the number that says how far from the wall they are, right now.
Checked: July 13, 2026What ccusage is great at
ccusage (17k+ GitHub stars) parses the local JSONL logs that coding agents write and turns them into reports: tokens per day, per project, per model, estimated cost in dollars. It's fast, it works offline, it covers a long list of tools beyond Claude Code, and for questions like "how many tokens did this refactor eat" or "what would my usage cost at API prices" it has no equal. If you live in the terminal and want retrospective analytics, keep it. Seriously.
What a log analyzer structurally can't do
ccusage reads what already happened on your disk. Your actual quota lives on Anthropic's side, so a few things are out of reach for any log-based tool:
- Live remaining quota. Token history can't tell you what percentage of your 5-hour window or weekly cap is left — plans are metered by Anthropic, not by local token counts.
- Reset times. When does your window come back? The logs don't know.
- Warnings. A CLI report can't tap you on the shoulder at 90% while you're deep in a task in another window.
- The passive glance. You have to remember to run it. The moment you most need the number — mid-flow, about to fire a big job — is exactly when you won't.
The honest comparison
| ccusage | Claude-Code-Usage-Monitor | AI Status Bar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format | CLI reports | Terminal dashboard | macOS menu bar |
| Data source | Local JSONL logs | Local JSONL logs | Live usage data for your logged-in accounts |
| Live 5h + weekly % | No | Estimated from logs | Yes |
| Reset countdowns | No | Estimated | Yes |
| Historical cost analytics | Excellent | Good | No |
| Notifications near the limit | No | In-terminal | System notifications (80/90%) |
| Multi-account | Partial (logs) | No | Yes, first-class |
| Codex too | Historical | No | Yes, live |
| Price | Free, OSS | Free, OSS | Free, OSS |
The actual answer: run both
These tools don't compete for the same job:
- ccusage weekly — retrospective: which projects and models eat your budget, what it would cost at API prices, whether your plan still makes sense.
- AI Status Bar always — live: how much window is left right now, when it resets, a warning before you slam into the wall mid-task.
Five-minute setup for the pair:
npx ccusage@latest— instant report, nothing to install.- Download AI Status Bar (or
brew install --cask sshykvlv/tap/ai-status-bar) — your accounts appear in the menu bar automatically.
FAQ
Is AI Status Bar a replacement for ccusage?
No — it replaces checking your quota by hand, not token analytics. If you want cost breakdowns per project, ccusage remains the tool. If you want to stop being surprised by You've hit your session limit, that's us.
Why do ccusage numbers differ from my actual limit?
ccusage counts tokens from local logs; Anthropic meters your plan on their side, factoring model, cache reads and surfaces beyond Claude Code (claude.ai chat counts against the same budget). Log-derived estimates drift from the real percentage — which is why live quota needs a live source.
Does AI Status Bar do cost estimates?
No, and by design — ccusage already does that superbly. We show the numbers that expire: window percentages and reset clocks.