AI Limitbar

Free, macOS only

Your Claude Code and ChatGPT Codex limits, always in the menubar.

A tiny macOS app that shows how much of your Claude or ChatGPT plan you have used: the current 5-hour session window and the weekly window, at a glance. Switch between Claude Code and Codex with one click. No login, no API calls, no credentials.

Download for macOS See how it works

Works with Claude Code and OpenAI Codex. macOS 14 or later. Not affiliated with Anthropic or OpenAI.

Claude Code and Codex

A tab at the top of the dropdown switches between your Claude Code and ChatGPT Codex usage. Your choice is remembered, and the menubar follows it.

Every window your plan has

Session and weekly by default. Extra caps, like the weekly Opus limit on Max plans, show up automatically when your account reports them.

Color you can read at a glance

Green under 70%, orange as you approach the limit, red when you are nearly out. Reset times are shown for every window.

Very minimal

Menubar only, no dock icon. Optional launch at login. One small compact readout: session% · weekly%.

Why there is no "connect account" button

It never talks to Anthropic or OpenAI.

In February 2026 Anthropic clarified that using the tokens from a Claude Free, Pro or Max account in any product other than Claude Code and Claude.ai is not allowed. So this app does not sign you in and does not call any API with your subscription. Instead it reads usage data that Claude Code and Codex already produce on your own machine. The same read-only rule is applied to both.

  • No login and no OAuth tokens.
  • No network requests to Anthropic or OpenAI, ever.
  • Reads local files and nothing else.

How it works

Both agents already write your rate-limit percentages to disk. Claude Code passes them to custom statusline scripts, and Codex records them in its session logs. This app rides on those supported mechanisms.

  1. Claude Code reports your limits

    On every statusline render, Claude Code hands over your 5-hour and weekly usage, with reset times. A small helper script prints your normal statusline and writes the numbers to ~/.claude/usage_snapshot.json.

  2. Codex needs no setup at all

    After each turn, Codex already logs its session and weekly limits into ~/.codex/sessions/. The app reads those files as they are, so nothing gets installed for Codex.

  3. The menubar app reads the files

    Pick Claude Code or Codex in the dropdown and the app shows that agent's numbers. That is the whole loop. Nothing leaves your Mac.

Because the data only updates while you are actually using the agent, readings older than 15 minutes are marked as stale rather than shown as if live.

Setup

  1. Download the app, drag it to your Applications folder, and open it. It lives in the menubar, with no dock icon.
  2. Click the menubar icon and pick Claude Code or Codex. The app remembers your choice. Selecting Claude Code also sets up its statusline helper for you; Codex needs nothing.
  3. Use that agent once. After the first response the menubar fills in with your usage.

Questions

Why does my usage not update when I use the Claude Code desktop app?

Claude Code hands your usage numbers to statusline scripts, and the statusline only exists in the terminal. The desktop app never renders one, so it never runs the helper that writes the numbers to disk. There is currently no other place on your Mac where the desktop app records how much of your plan you have used.

Codex is not affected by this, because it writes its limits to its own session logs regardless of how you use it.

Why is the app not in the MacOS App Store?

The MacOS App Store requires apps to run "sandboxed"; this means, the app is only allowed to access it's own files. Since we need to read the status file from ChatGPT / Claude, this means it won't work sandboxed.

How can I check the security of this file?

First of all, you can check that it is signed and notarized. This tells you who made it and whether Apple has scanned it.

Go to the Terminal app and run:

codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Applications/AILimitbar.app

or

spctl -a -vv /Applications/AILimitbar.app

You'll see things like:

  • Developer ID
  • Team ID
  • Whether it is notarized
  • Hardened Runtime enabled

Sadly, it is not possible to see permissions (like incoming / outgoing network calls) on apps that aren't sandboxed (see the other FAQ item). You can only see that there are no network connections by running the app, then in terminal check the network activity:

nettop -p "$(pgrep -x AILimitbar)"

or

lsof -nP -i -a -p "$(pgrep -x AILimitbar)"

However, this will be an empty screen since the app doesn't do any networking.

Is there a Linux version available?

Yes, rds79 made a port! Check it out at https://github.com/rudge79/ai-usage-claude

Get it

Free, no account needed. Download, unzip, drag to Applications, done.

Download for macOS

macOS 14 or later. Requires an active Claude Code or Codex setup.

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