claudetop

14:32  my-project/src/app  Opus  20m 0s  +256/-43  #auth-refactor
152.3K in / 45.2K out  ████░░░░░░ 38%  $3.47  $5.10/hr  ~$174/mo
cache: 66%  efficiency: $0.012/line  opus:~$3.20  sonnet:~$0.88  haiku:~$0.23
in:80% out:20% (fresh:15% cwrite:7% cread:76%)
$5 MARK  |  main*  |  ♫ Artist - Song  |  PROJ-123  |  CI ✓

The problem

Claude Code doesn't show you what you're spending. You finish a session, check your billing dashboard, and discover a $65 charge for what felt like 30 minutes of work. You have no idea which session caused it, which model was wasteful, or whether your cache was even working.

I built claudetop after noticing my model estimate showed $10 but the actual bill was $65. Turns out, compaction was hiding 80% of my token usage. The cost was real — the visibility wasn't.

Install

Clone and install (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/liorwn/claudetop.git
cd claudetop && ./install.sh

One-liner

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liorwn/claudetop/main/install.sh | bash

As a Claude Code plugin

claude plugin marketplace add liorwn/claudetop
claude plugin install claudetop

This gives you the SessionEnd hook + all slash commands (/claudetop:stats, /claudetop:dashboard, /claudetop:branch, /claudetop:export, /claudetop:pricing) automatically.

Then restart Claude Code.

What you see

Before claudetop

>

A blank prompt. No context. No cost. No idea.

After claudetop

14:32  my-project/src/app  Opus  20m 0s  +256/-43  #auth-refactor
152.3K in / 45.2K out  ████░░░░░░ 38%  $3.47  $5.10/hr  ~$174/mo
cache: 66%  efficiency: $0.012/line  opus:~$3.20  sonnet:~$0.88  haiku:~$0.23
$5 MARK  |  TRY /fast  |  main*  |  CI ✓  |  ♫ Bonobo - Kerala

Every response, you see:

• What project you're in and how deep
• What model is running and for how long
• What it costs right now, per hour, and projected monthly
• How efficient your cache is (are you wasting tokens?)
• What it would cost on a different model (should you switch?)
• Smart alerts when something is wrong

Features

Real-time cost tracking

Your actual session cost (green), burn rate per hour, and monthly forecast extrapolated from your history. No more billing surprises.

Model cost comparison

See what your session would cost on Opus, Sonnet, or Haiku — with cache-aware pricing that accounts for your actual cache hit ratio. The current model is bolded so you can instantly compare.

Pricing updates automatically from the pricing.json in this repo — when Anthropic changes prices, claudetop stays current.

Cache efficiency

Your cache hit ratio tells you if you're being efficient. Green (≥60%) means most of your input tokens are being reused. Red (<30%) means something is forcing full re-reads — maybe compaction, maybe a model switch.

Smart alerts

Only appear when something needs your attention:

Session history & analytics

Every session is automatically logged. See where your money goes:

claudetop-stats              # Today's summary
claudetop-stats week         # This week
claudetop-stats month        # This month
claudetop-stats all          # All time
claudetop-stats tag auth     # Filter by tag

claudetop-stats  This Week
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Summary
  Sessions:     12
  Total cost:   $47.30
  Avg / session:  $3.94
  Daily avg:      $9.46

Cost by model
  claude-opus-4-6:       $38.20
  claude-sonnet-4-6:     $9.10

Top projects by cost
  rri-os                 $22.50  (4 sessions)
  pistol-claw            $14.80  (5 sessions)
  the-table              $10.00  (3 sessions)

Deep analytics engine

The analytics engine scans all Claude Code JSONL session files — not just hook-recorded ones. It captures your complete history including sessions from before claudetop was installed, subagent costs, and per-turn token breakdowns.

claudetop-engine scan       # Scan all JSONL files → SQLite
claudetop-engine today      # Today (with per-turn tool breakdown)
claudetop-engine stats      # All-time (subagents, top tools, projects)
claudetop-engine dashboard  # Live web dashboard at localhost:8080

The live dashboard features an activity heatmap, cost-by-model charts, project and tool breakdowns, subagent cost attribution, and a sortable session table — all with model filtering and time range selection. Auto-refreshes every 30 seconds.

Zero dependencies — uses only Python 3 standard library (sqlite3, http.server, json).

Session tagging

Track costs per feature, bug, or initiative:

export CLAUDETOP_TAG=auth-refactor
# ... work on auth ...
claudetop-stats tag auth-refactor
# Total cost: $12.40 across 3 sessions

Daily budget

export CLAUDETOP_DAILY_BUDGET=50

Shows budget: $12 left at 80% → OVER BUDGET ($52/$50) when exceeded.

Themes

export CLAUDETOP_THEME=full      # Default: 3-5 lines
export CLAUDETOP_THEME=minimal   # 2 lines
export CLAUDETOP_THEME=compact   # 1 line

iTerm2 integration

Push claudetop data into iTerm2's chrome — tab titles, status bar, and badge watermark:

export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=all           # Enable everything
export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=title         # Tab/window title only
export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=badge         # Watermark overlay only
export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=statusbar     # User variables for status bar
export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=bgcolor       # Background color tint by state
export CLAUDETOP_ITERM=title,badge   # Combine any options

Tab title — Shows project | $4.21 | Opus 4.6 | ctx:38% in your iTerm2 tab. Zero configuration.

Badge — Faint watermark in the terminal background with cost, model, and context at a glance. Great for keeping cost visible while scrolling through output.

Background color — Subtly tints the terminal background based on session state:

When a session ends, the background stays green so you can see at a glance which terminals are idle vs active. Resets to default when the next session starts clean.

Status bar — Sets iTerm2 user-defined variables that you can display in the status bar (top or bottom of terminal). Configure in iTerm2: Preferences > Profiles > Session > Status Bar > add "Interpolated String" components:

No-op on non-iTerm2 terminals — escape sequences are silently ignored.

Context composition

See what's eating your context window:

in:80% out:20% (fresh:15% cwrite:7% cread:76%)

High cread = cache is working well. High fresh = re-reading files every turn.

Plugins

Drop any executable script into ~/.claude/claudetop.d/ — it becomes part of your status line.

Included (enabled by default):

Example plugins (copy to enable):

cp ~/.claude/claudetop.d/_examples/spotify.sh ~/.claude/claudetop.d/

Write your own in 4 lines:

#!/bin/bash
JS