A few weeks ago I had one of those tiny panic moments every solo dev knows.
I was bouncing between Claude, Cursor, and a couple other tools while shipping TokenBar. Nothing felt out of control. I wasn't doing some heroic all-night AI binge. I was just building.
Then I opened my billing and realized the weird part wasn't the number. It was how late I usually noticed it.
That was the moment TokenBar clicked for me as a product idea. I didn't want another dashboard. I didn't want to dig through tabs after the damage was already done. I wanted the thing right where the work happens: in the menu bar, staring back at me while I'm coding.
Now I treat token spend like I treat CPU or memory usage. If it spikes, I want to know immediately. Not next week. Not in a monthly report. Right then.
That's why I built TokenBar: https://tokenbar.site
It's a small app, but the goal is simple. Make AI spend visible enough that I actually change behavior before the bill gets stupid.
I still use AI constantly. I just don't want to be surprised by it anymore.
![Defluffer - reduce token usage 📉 by 45% using this one simple trick! [Earthday challenge]](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=1000,height=420,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fiekbgepcutl4jse0sfs0.png)
