Claudetop – htop for Claude Code sessions (see your AI spend in real-time)

Claudetop is a powerful command-line tool that helps developers monitor their Claude Code spending visually and in real-time, preventing surprise bills by providing detailed token usage, cache efficiency, and smart alerts.

You're spending $20/day on Claude Code and can't see it.

claudetop shows you exactly where your tokens and dollars go — in real time.

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 ✓

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.

claude plugin marketplace add liorwn/claudetop
claude plugin install claudetop@liorwn/claudetop

This gives you the SessionEnd hook + all slash commands (/claudetop:stats

, /claudetop:dashboard

, /claudetop:branch

, /claudetop:export

, /claudetop:pricing

) automatically.

Then run the setup script to configure the status line + daily pricing updates:

cd ~/.claude/plugins/cache/liorwn/claudetop/*/
./install.sh

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

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

Then restart Claude Code.

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

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 projectyou're in and how deepWhat modelis running and for how longWhat it costsright now, per hour, and projected monthlyHow efficientyour cache is (are you wasting tokens?)What it would coston a different model (should you switch?)Smart alertswhen something is wrong

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

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.

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.

Only appear when something needs your attention:

| Alert | What happened | What to do | |---|---|---| $5 MARK / $10 / $25 | Cost milestone crossed | Gut-check: am I getting value? | OVER BUDGET | Daily budget exceeded | Wrap up or switch models | CONSIDER FRESH SESSION |

2hrs + >60% context | Start fresh — diminishing returns | LOW CACHE | <20% cache after 5min | Context was reset, tokens being re-read | BURN RATE | $15/hr velocity | Runaway subagents or tight loops | SPINNING? | $1 spent, zero code output | Stuck in a research loop | TRY /fast | $0.05/line on Opus | This task doesn't need the biggest model | COMPACT SOON | Context window >80% full | Auto-compaction is imminent |

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)

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

export CLAUDETOP_DAILY_BUDGET=50

Shows budget: $12 left

at 80% → OVER BUDGET ($52/$50)

when exceeded.

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

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.

Drop any executable script into ~/.claude/claudetop.d/

— it becomes part of your status line.

Included (enabled by default):

| Plugin | What it shows | |---|---| git-branch.sh | main* (branch + dirty indicator) |

Example plugins (copy to enable):

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

| Plugin | What it shows | |---|---| spotify.sh | ♫ Artist - Song (macOS) | gh-ci-status.sh | CI ✓ or CI ✗ (GitHub Actions) | meeting-countdown.sh | Mtg in 12m: Standup (macOS Calendar) | ticket-from-branch.sh | PROJ-123 (from branch name) | weather.sh | Current weather (wttr.in) | news-ticker.sh | Top HN story | pomodoro.sh | Focus timer | system-load.sh | CPU load average |

Write your own in 4 lines:

#!/bin/bash
JSON=$(cat)
COST=$(echo "$JSON" | jq -r '.cost.total_cost_usd')
printf "\033[32m\$%s\033[0m" "$COST"

Make it executable, drop it in ~/.claude/claudetop.d/

, done.

Pricing updates daily from this repo. When Anthropic changes prices, we update pricing.json and everyone gets the new rates next morning.

Current pricing (Claude 4.6, March 2026):

| Model | Input | Cache Write | Cache Read | Output | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Opus 4.6 | $5/MTok | $6.25/MTok | $0.50/MTok | $25/MTok | | | Sonnet 4.6 | $3/MTok | $3.75/MTok | $0.30/MTok | $15/MTok | 2x input / 1.5x output when >200K tokens | | Haiku 4.5 | $1/MTok | $1.25/MTok | $0.10/MTok | $5/MTok | |

Extended thinking tokens are billed at standard output rates. No additional charge.

To update manually: ~/.claude/update-claudetop-pricing.sh

Every metric uses traffic-light colors — green means healthy, red means act:

| Metric | Green | Yellow | Red | |---|---|---|---| | Cost velocity | <$3/hr | <$8/hr | ≥$8/hr | | Cache ratio | ≥60% | ≥30% | <30% | | Efficiency | <$0.01/line | <$0.05/line | ≥$0.05/line | | Context bar | <50% | 50-80% | ≥80% | | Time of day | 6am-10pm | — | Magenta after 10pm |