Install ClaudeMeter
One email, one welcome message, three working gauges in your menu bar about a minute later. The extension forwards your existing claude.ai session, so no cookie paste.
brew install command for the menu bar app and CLI“I typed ‘test one two three’ into Claude Code. That put me at 12%.”— Hacker News #47586176 ↑
Free, MIT, no card. The email carries your tokenized .dmg link and a reply-to thread straight to me if the install fights you. Unsubscribe in one click; the only follow-up I ever send is a heads-up when Anthropic shifts the usage endpoint and you need a quick brew upgrade.
Install the menu bar app
Open the welcome email and pick whichever route you prefer. The Homebrew route runs a single command in Terminal; if you do not have Homebrew, grab it from brew.sh first. The .dmg route is a normal macOS installer, useful if you do not have Homebrew or want to install on a machine without a terminal session handy.
Either path drops a signed, notarized ClaudeMeter.app into /Applications and adds a claude-meter CLI alongside it. Already installed? The brew upgrade command (also in the email) pulls the latest patch.
Launch ClaudeMeter once
Open ClaudeMeter from /Applications. A small C| icon appears in the menu bar. Until the browser extension is loaded the popover will show a single !, which means “no session yet”. That is expected.
First-launch Gatekeeper warning? Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to the “ClaudeMeter was blocked” row, and click Open Anyway. macOS only asks once per signed build.
Load the browser extension
The extension is unpacked from source so you can audit every line. It runs only on claude.ai, reads your existing cookies, and POSTs the snapshot to the menu bar app over localhost:63762. Repeat the steps below for each Chromium browser you use with Claude.
- Clone the claude-meter repo using the git URL from the welcome email (only once, anywhere on disk).
- Open the extensions page in your browser:
- Chrome: chrome://extensions
- Arc: arc://extensions
- Brave: brave://extensions
- Edge: edge://extensions
- Toggle Developer mode in the top-right corner. Three buttons (Load unpacked, Pack extension, Update) appear.
- Click Load unpacked and select the extension/ folder inside the cloned repo.
- Pin the ClaudeMeter icon to the toolbar so the popup is reachable.
Why unpacked instead of a Web Store install? The Web Store path forces a review queue that lags behind Anthropic’s endpoint changes. Loading from source means a quick git pull ships the patch the same day.
Visit claude.ai and verify
Sign in to claude.ai in the same browser. Within ~60 seconds the menu bar popover should fill in with three gauges: rolling 5-hour window, weekly quota, and extra-usage balance. Open claude.ai/settings/usage and confirm the percentages match. They should be identical, because ClaudeMeter reads the same JSON the settings page renders.
- Menu bar shows e.g. 62% · $3.40 instead of !
- Popover footer reads refreshed Ns ago, auto, every 60s
- 5-hour percentage matches claude.ai/settings/usage to the integer
Install troubleshooting
Menu bar still shows ! after a minute
The extension has not posted a snapshot yet. Confirm the ClaudeMeter extension is enabled at chrome://extensions, open claude.ai in any tab, and wait one refresh tick (60s). The popup itself is optional; the work happens in the background page.
“ClaudeMeter cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it”
Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway on the ClaudeMeter row. macOS will not ask again for this signed build.
Extension installed, but numbers never appear
The localhost bridge runs on 127.0.0.1:63762. If a strict firewall (Little Snitch, Lulu) blocks that port, allow ClaudeMeter once. Also check that the menu bar app is actually running, not just installed.
Numbers do not match claude.ai/settings/usage
The default refresh interval is 60 seconds, so a one-tick lag is normal. If the gap is larger or the popover shows a schema mismatch warning, Anthropic shipped a payload change. Run the brew upgrade step from the welcome email and pull the extension repo to pick up the patch.
Multiple browsers (Chrome and Arc), do I load it twice?
Yes, once per browser. The menu bar app identifies which browser sent each snapshot by the peer TCP socket’s owning process, so each browser shows up correctly tagged in the popover.
Alternative: extension-free install (Route B)
If you would rather not load a browser extension, the menu bar app can read Chrome’s cookie database directly. On first launch macOS shows the prompt:
ClaudeMeter wants to use the confidential information stored in “Chrome Safe Storage” in your keychain.
Click Always Allow. The app then locates the Chrome profile signed into claude.ai, decrypts its session cookie locally, and calls the same usage endpoint. Chromium-family browsers only. The keychain prompt is broad because Safe Storage is also Chrome’s master key for saved passwords and cards, which is why most people stick with the extension route.
Bonus: drop the numbers into your shell
The cask installs a CLI alongside the app. Pipe it into tmux, Starship, or a zsh prompt. The exact command line lives in the welcome email so you can copy it from your inbox once installed.
Uninstall
The welcome email also lists the brew uninstall command. Remove the extension from chrome://extensions to clean up the browser side. ClaudeMeter stores no state on disk beyond the cached session cookie it received from the extension; deleting the app drops it.
Four steps, about a minute, one email
Drop your email and the brew command, .dmg link, and extension git URL land in your inbox. Run the brew line, load the extension, open claude.ai once, and the menu bar fills in with your 5-hour, weekly, and extra-usage gauges. No card, no cookie paste, nothing to cancel.