Your Claude usage at a glance. A macOS menu bar widget that shows your Claude session and weekly limits... as a battery.
Download the app or brew install reebz/claude-battery/claude-battery
Why a battery?
A battery is something everyone already understands. Full means you're good. Half means pace yourself. No documentation required.
Tokens just don't feel like anything to me.
Once Opus 4.6 landed, I was quickly aware I needed to keep an eye on usage. I have watched (probably) millions of them tick over in Claude Cowork or Claude Code, but unless you've memorized your plan's limits, the numbers are noise (and then change your plan and the goalposts move again). More and more of my colleagues who are marketers, designers, writers or creatives use Claude daily. They just don't think in tokens or try to optimize for chasing the bleeding edge of token min/maxing, but they did find themselves constantly having to go into Claude > Settings > Usage and double check they weren't setting their quota on fire -- that's why I built this. That said, if you're an engineer who wants usage monitoring that stays out of the way... you're exactly who this is for too.
There are other good usage widgets out there... great ones in fact. Claude Battery takes a different approach: what can we remove instead of what can we add - or "Simplify, and add lightness" in the words of Chapman. The result is something lightweight enough to forget it's running, and clear enough to understand at a glance.
And lastly, "Invert, always invert".
Installation
Download
Download here, or manually find the latest .dmg file from the downloads folder, open it, and drag Claude Battery to your Applications folder.
Homebrew
brew install reebz/claude-battery/claude-battery
How To Use
- Launch Claude Battery from Applications
Apple may give a warning about opening a downloaded app. To launch, right-click and open.
- Left-click the battery icon in the menu bar to sign in
- Sign in with your claude.ai account (you may be asked to use a 6-digit code)
- That's it -- usage updates automatically in the background. Left-click the battery icon for more details.
Right-click the menu bar icon for Settings, Notification customization, and to Quit.
Features
- Minimalist and fast -- with a little left-click if you need more
- Launch at login option & checks for updates automatically
- Simple, browser-based sign-in (no weird Keychain prompts)
- Privacy-first -- no analytics, no tracking, no data collection
Menu Bar
- Two battery icons with fill level and percentage -- Session (5-hour) and Weekly (7-day)
- Battery icon turns red below 20% so you won't get caught off guard
- 5 selectable icon styles: Dual Horizontal (default), Minimal, Dual Arc Gauge, Text Only, Stacked Bars
Popover (left-click)
- Session and Weekly usage arc gauges with colour-coded fill
- Extra Usage spend tracking bar -- see how much you've spent against your monthly limit (only shows when Extra Usage is enabled on your account)
- Per-model breakdown (Opus and Sonnet) with horizontal progress bars
- Session and Weekly reset countdown timers
- Account switcher with inline nickname editing (multi-account)
Notifications
- Low usage alert when your weekly quota drops below a configurable threshold
- Notification threshold adjustable from 5% to 50% in Settings (right-click)
Multi-Account
- Sign into up to 5 separate Claude.ai accounts (work, personal, side projects)
- Switch between accounts instantly from the popover
- Custom nicknames per account
Credits
- More icon choices: thank you to @AymericFerreira for the PR.
- Homebrew cask: thank you to @geekuality for the distribution idea.
- Extra usage spend in local currency: thank you to @theleoborges for the feature idea.
- Multi-account support: thank you to @joeymnguyen for the feature idea.
- Popover UI: After deciding on the design direction, I found Watts that served as inspiration
Support
If you find Claude Battery useful, consider buying me a coffee.
Privacy Policy
Claude Battery does not collect, store, or transmit personal data.
The app:
- Does not include analytics
- Does not include tracking
- Does not share data with third parties
- Does not store user data on external servers
Claude Battery only retrieves usage information associated with the user's Claude account. All communication occurs between the user's device and claude.ai.
No data is retained by the developer.