Claudetop – htop for Claude Code sessions (see your AI spend in real-time)(github.com)
49 pointsby liorwn5 hours ago8 comments
  • sgarland4 hours ago

        curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liorwn/claudetop/main/install.sh | bash
    Installing claudetop...
    cp: /Users/sgarland/claudetop.sh: No such file or directory
    You need to have it handle being piped; right now it expects to find itself at $PWD. It also makes several other assumptions, like the location of Claude, and that the user wants stats being `/usr/local/bin`.
  • brikym2 hours ago
    Nice idea. A sounds plugin would be great. Imagine if you could gauge the spend just by a geiger counter, or the tempo of a song. Any chance of opencode support?
  • amelius4 hours ago
    Anthropic should work on their billing. It's crazy. I did my best to not get billed more than I consciously pay into my account, auto reload is off and never was on, but still now the meter shows an unpaid balance. This is nuts. One customer is angry and disappointed. This is totally unnecessary.

    And why do I need to create a new API key whenever I run out of balance?

  • liorwn5 hours ago
    I built this after noticing a $65 charge for what felt like a $10 session. Turns out, context compaction was hiding 80% of my token usage. Real cost, no visibility.

    claudetop is a status line for Claude Code that shows your burn rate, cache efficiency, model cost comparison, and smart alerts (like "TRY /fast" when Opus is overkill for the task). Plugin system for extensibility — Spotify, CI status, calendar, etc.

    Single bash script, zero dependencies beyond jq. One-command install.

    • js231 minutes ago
      I asked Claude Opus yesterday if it could put my token cost (and tokens remaining) into the status bar and it insisted there was no way to get this information.

      ETA: ah, this isn't getting real time cost from an Anthropic API or anything. It's estimating it based on token usage and a JSON config file that specifies token cost.

    • cortesoft4 hours ago
      I am always a hit confused when people talk about these charges... are you not using the subscriptions with the flat rates? I am on the $100 a month plan, and am constantly using clause code and never coming close to my limits. Maybe I am just not using it at the levels of some people...
      • Gobd4 hours ago
        I have noticed the same with the $100/mo plan, I hit the limt only once with heavy usage. Then when I use my employer's AWS Bedrock it's not uncommon for my spend to $50/day of serious work. It doesn't make much sense.
        • sroussey4 hours ago
          Anthropic is subsidizing Claude Code. It makes lots of sense.
        • verdverm4 hours ago
          The paid plans require you to use their interfaces or tooling. The main reason I pay per token is so I have tooling freedom. I'm not keen to let Big AI decide how I interact with this game changing technology.
          • cortesoft3 hours ago
            I haven't yet been blocked by their tooling. All the current tools I use seem to work fine with the claude code interface, can just call it with -p.
      • copperx4 hours ago
        $100 is for casual usage. To use it for work requires $200/mi plus extra usage.
        • Gobd4 hours ago
          CC does all of my work and I have hit the $100/mo Max plan limit only once, and I probably could have just called it quits for the day at that point.
        • cortesoft3 hours ago
          Are you saying that is the Claude rules for the subscription or saying because work uses more of it?
        • 4 hours ago
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      • verdverm4 hours ago
        I pay per token using an API (Vertex)

        1. Higher limits and quota, goes up with more spend

        2. I don't think it gets quant nerf's during busy times, since you are paying directly

        3. With Gemini flash + CC prompts, it's nearly as good, so less spend and latency. I don't know how people deal with the delays between turns. I get to iterate much faster for most tasks

        • cortesoft3 hours ago
          I don't seem to have any delays between turns with my Claude subscription, so not sure what you mean there.

          Your second point seems like a guess.

          For your first point, I bumped to the $100 plan because i was hitting limits with the $20 one, but haven't hit the limit with the new one yet...

      • MattGaiser4 hours ago
        How many agents are you using at once?
    • jakeinspace4 hours ago
      Please type things yourself. Or at least prompt your LLM of choice to sound less canned.
      • brikym2 hours ago
        /authentic-writer skill: No em dashes or emojis. add in a few typos and bad grammmer. Avoid it's not not X but Y. imagine you're a mere human and your pinky finger is very tired so you forget to uppercase sometimes.
      • CubsFan10604 hours ago
        41 minute old account. "I built post". LLM sounding everything. I'd be surprised if there was a real person behind this at all.
    • Self-Perfection3 hours ago
      > like "TRY /fast" when Opus is overkill for the task

      In fact using /fast in this case would only increase spending. /fast mode uses the same opus but consumes $$$$ faster to produce tokens faster )

      https://code.claude.com/docs/en/fast-mode

    • sneak4 hours ago
      I believe there is a new HN guideline asking people not to post AI slop as comments.
  • 4 hours ago
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  • beepbooptheory24 minutes ago
    Something kinda disturbing seeing a USD cost like that in a cute top-like TUI. It's like numbers I expect to see as rather variable and sometimes ballooning, except it's attached to my credit card. Like just reflexively terrifying I guess.
  • brcmthrowaway4 hours ago
    Have you tried a local model?
    • rvz4 hours ago
      The Qwen series are very good local models.
  • hirehalai4 hours ago
    [flagged]