Desktop meter · usage & spend

Never get surprised by an AI bill again.

A tiny meter in your menu bar that shows, live, how much your AI coding tools are costing you — your token count, your dollar spend, and how close you are to your plan limit. It reads the logs your tools already write on your own computer, so there are no API keys and nothing to configure. It also feeds those numbers to your phone and watch.

runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux · no API keys
A token is the unit of text an AI reads and writes — the thing you actually pay for. The meter turns the local logs your tools already write into one live running total, so you never guess what a session cost.
What it does

The heart of Vibe Guard — your usage, live.

The desktop meter is the same live monitor the paid apps build on. It reads the logs your AI coding tools already write on your computer and turns them into a running total.

Live token count & spend

Counts today's tokens and dollar cost across Claude desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and more — all in one number.

Limit countdowns

Shows your rolling 5-hour window and weekly limit with reset times, so you wrap up before you get cut off.

Feeds your phone & watch

Pushes the same numbers to the Vibe Guard app through your account — check your usage anywhere.

Private by design

No API keys. It only reads usage counts from local logs — never your prompts or your code.

On a provider API key? You don't even need the meter — the phone app reads your usage straight from the provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI). The meter is for plan/subscription users (Claude Max, Codex).
How you'd use it

One number, three kinds of builder.

Same live meter in the corner of your screen — whether it's your first app or your fiftieth.

Vibe coder

You've no idea what an AI session actually costs. (A token is the unit of text an AI reads and writes — what you pay for.) The meter shows a plain dollar figure ticking up as you build — so you stop before the surprise, not after it.

Developer

You run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini CLI in parallel. The meter rolls all of them into one running total and counts down your 5-hour and weekly limits, so you wrap up before you get cut off.

Enterprise

After Microsoft pulled engineers off Claude Code when AI spend blew the budget, per-seat visibility stopped being optional. The meter reads real usage locally — no provider API, no keys to hand out.

Download & set up

Pick your computer. Up and running in a minute.

The first time it runs, sign in with your Vibe Guard account — that links this computer to you automatically. No codes to copy.

macOS

Mac

  1. Download and open the .dmg.
  2. Drag Vibe Guard Meter into Applications.
  3. Open it — sign in with your account, and it shows your live count.
Download for Mac
Windows

Windows

  1. Download and unzip.
  2. If you don't have Python, install it (the README shows where).
  3. Double-click Start VibeGuard Meter.
Download for Windows
Linux

Linux

  1. Download and unzip.
  2. Run ./start-vibeguard-meter.sh (Python 3 is usually built in).
  3. It shows your live count once you sign in.
Download for Linux
Want a tray icon with no window on Windows/Linux? Each download includes a short guide for the tray version. A true one-click app for Windows/Linux is on the way.

The foundation of everything else.

Start with the meter. Upgrade later for all-tools aggregation, the context-window gauge, limit alerts, and the on-device Coach.