I built TokenBar, a Mac menu bar app that shows your Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini and Copilot usage limits, reset times and AI spend in one place. Pro is $15 lifetime for one Mac (or $5/month Basic) at tokenbar.site. It's built on CodexBar, a free, open-source, MIT-licensed project by Peter Steinberger. People reasonably ask: why would anyone pay $15 for something built on a free app? This post is my honest answer, including the cases where you should just use CodexBar.
What CodexBar is
CodexBar is an open-source macOS menu-bar app that shows usage for AI coding tools such as Codex and Claude Code. It's MIT-licensed, which means anyone can use it, modify it, and build on it, including commercially, as long as the license and copyright notice are kept. It has an active community and it's free.
If you've never tried a menu-bar usage tracker, CodexBar is a great place to start. It costs nothing, and you'll find out quickly whether having usage visible changes how you work.
What TokenBar is
TokenBar is a commercial app from Aura Technologies built on top of CodexBar's foundation. The MIT license allows that, and TokenBar keeps the required attribution. It sells for $15 as a one-time purchase at tokenbar.site, with no subscription.
The goal of TokenBar is to focus on spend: helping you see what AI coding is costing you and keep it within a budget, packaged as a polished app with direct support from the developer.
When you should use CodexBar
I'd genuinely recommend the free option if:
- You're comfortable with open-source tooling and happy to update, configure, or build from source.
- You mostly want usage visibility and the CodexBar feature set already covers your tools.
- You like contributing. Open-source projects improve when people use them and send fixes upstream.
- Budget is tight. If $15 matters right now, a free tool that does 90% of what you need is the right call.
There's no catch here. CodexBar is good software.
When TokenBar might be worth $15
TokenBar is aimed at a few kinds of people:
- They want a packaged, supported app. Paying gets you a product with a developer who answers email and has a direct incentive to keep it working.
- They care primarily about cost rather than raw usage, and want the app oriented around spend.
- They'd rather not maintain anything. Install it, leave it running, forget it.
- They want to support continued development of a focused tool.
On top of CodexBar, TokenBar adds a Pro dashboard with spending history and provider mix, Pixel Agents (your coding agents shown as a small pixel-art office so you can see which are working, done or waiting on you), and more providers. That's the honest pitch: convenience, focus, and support, not secret capabilities that make the free version useless.
Why build on open source at all?
Because rebuilding a solid foundation from scratch would have been wasteful. CodexBar's authors did excellent work and chose a permissive license that explicitly allows this. Building on it let me spend time on the parts I cared about instead of reinventing the basics.
I think the healthy way to do this is to be upfront. TokenBar's relationship to CodexBar is disclosed, the license is respected, and anyone who reads this post can make an informed choice. If you think a paid app built on an MIT project is distasteful, that's a fair opinion, and CodexBar is right there.
Questions to ask yourself
If you're deciding between the two, try this:
- Install CodexBar first. It's free.
- Use it for a week of normal work.
- Ask: did I miss anything? Was there a spend-related question I couldn't answer at a glance? Did I want something more packaged?
- If the answer is no, you're done. Keep using CodexBar.
- If the answer is yes, look at what TokenBar offers and decide if it's worth $15 to you.
The bigger point
Whichever one you choose, the real win is having AI spend visible while you work. Developers who can see the meter make different decisions: they start fresh sessions sooner, they use cheaper models for routine work, and they notice runaway agents before the bill does. A free tool that you actually use beats a paid one sitting in your Downloads folder.
Disclosure, once more
I built TokenBar. It's a product from Aura Technologies, based on the MIT-licensed CodexBar project, and it costs $15 one-time at tokenbar.site. I have an obvious interest in people buying it, which is why I've tried to be clear about when you shouldn't. If you try CodexBar and it's enough, I'd honestly count that as a good outcome: one more developer keeping an eye on their AI spend.
A note for other indie developers
If you're considering building a commercial product on open source, a few lessons from doing it:
- Read the license carefully and follow it exactly.
- Credit the original project prominently, not in a hidden footer.
- Add real value rather than just repackaging.
- Be kind about the comparison. The upstream project made your product possible.
Get TokenBar: https://tokenbar.site
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