Open Source Dashboard Reveals Actual Claude Code Compute Costs
What This Tool Does
A developer built an open source dashboard that calculates your actual compute costs when using Claude Code. This addresses a visibility gap: Anthropic's /limits command only shows a percentage without context, and there's no built-in way to see real compute costs.
How It Works
The developer reverse-engineered the rate limit formula from API response headers. Claude Code uses a weighted token cost model where input, output, cache creation, and cache read are all priced differently. Once you know the weights, you can calculate exact dollar burn per session.
Dashboard Features
- Real-time usage percentage (matches Anthropic's internal number exactly)
- Actual dollar cost
- Burn rate
- Peak hours tracking
- Shows which skills/hooks are firing
Key Finding
The developer discovered their $100/month maximum plan burned $13,286 in equivalent API compute in one month. This reveals the current level of subsidization, suggesting many users will face cost shocks when subsidies end.
Compatibility and Setup
The dashboard works for TUI, VS Code, and T3 Code users. It's particularly useful for IDE users who currently have zero visibility into their limits. The tool runs locally and takes approximately 60 seconds to set up.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
👀 See Also
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Token Reducer is a Claude Code plugin that processes repository context locally to reduce token usage by 90-98% using AST-based chunking, hybrid retrieval, and TextRank compression. It's MIT licensed and available via the plugin marketplace.