Plenty of room.

• Your usage at a glanceThe ring is your 5-hour session and the dot is your week. Green, yellow, orange and red tell you how close you are.
• Color or monochromeUse the colored gauge, or a monochrome one that matches a light or dark panel, picked automatically or by hand.
• Linux and macOSDeveloped on Linux and tested on GNOME and KDE Plasma, with a signed and notarized Mac app. Builds for Intel/AMD and ARM.
• Alerts before you hit a limitNotifications at 50, 75, 90, 99 and 100% for the session, the week and each model, plus one when your quota resets.
• Light and self-containedA download of about 2 MB that uses about 4 MB of memory on Linux, with nothing else to install.
• Never touches your loginIt reads what Claude Code already writes on your machine. No credentials, no cookies, no API calls of its own.
• Per-model limitsModels with their own weekly limit get their own row in the menu, with their own reset time.
• Every Claude Code profileRun Claude Code with more than one config folder? Each one gets its own section, and you pick which one the icon follows.

Light to download and to run

Downloads are 1.4 to 2.2 MB. Measured on the author's own machines, the running tray uses about 4 MB of memory on Linux and about 22 MB¹ on macOS. CPU barely registers: 67 seconds of CPU time in almost three days on a Linux desktop, and 21 seconds in four and a half hours on an M4 Pro Mac. ¹Why macOS uses more: a menu bar item has to go through AppKit, Apple's app framework, which sets aside memory in every app that uses it. On Linux the tray talks to your desktop's tray directly, with no framework at all. The macOS figure is the one Activity Monitor shows as Memory.

Nothing else to install

The Linux builds are single static binaries, and the macOS app carries everything it needs. No runtime, no browser extension, no background service. The only requirement is Claude Code itself, version 2.1.80 or newer.

Safe for your account

Some usage trackers pretend to be the Claude CLI and call Anthropic's API with your credentials, which Anthropic disallows and which can get an account banned. This one never reads your credentials and never calls Anthropic's API. It reads the numbers Claude Code already writes on your machine.

The tray never reads your Claude credentials, never touches your OAuth tokens, and never contacts Anthropic or claude.ai. There is no account to create and nothing to log into.

Claude Code already works out your usage and hands it to your statusline. One command adds the tray to that handoff:

1. Claude Codeworks out your usage while you use it
2. Your statuslinekeeps printing what it always did
3. A file on your machinewhere the hook copies the numbers
4. The trayreads that file, and that's all

One setting involves Claude itself: Refresh usage via Claude CLI runs the official claude command, at most once an hour, so it fetches your latest numbers with your normal login. It's on by default, and turning it off leaves the tray fully passive. More in the questions below.

Other tools pretend to be the Claude CLI to fetch these numbers, which can get an account banned. This one only reads what Claude Code already wrote to your statusline.

The outer arc is your 5-hour session, sweeping clockwise as you use it. The dot in the middle is your weekly usage. Both turn yellow at 50%, orange at 75% and red at 90%, the same points where the tray can notify you.

Prefer a quieter panel? Switch to monochrome, and the length of the arc carries the reading on its own.

claude-usage-tray is developed on Linux and tested on GNOME and KDE Plasma. The macOS menu bar version came later. The Linux builds are single static binaries with no dependencies, packaged for Debian, Fedora, Arch and Alpine.

KDE Plasma

Tested. Works out of the box.

GNOME

Tested. Needs the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension, because GNOME has no tray of its own. If it's missing, the tray tells you instead of running invisibly.

XFCE 4.16 and newer, LXQt, Cinnamon, MATE

Work out of the box through the standard freedesktop tray.

Notifications go through your desktop's own notification service, and Launch at login writes a standard autostart entry.

Every macOS build is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. It opens on the first try: no "unidentified developer" warning, no trip to Privacy & Security to allow it, and no xattr command to run. Builds come for Apple silicon and Intel.

A real app, in the menu bar only

Homebrew installs it into Applications. There's no Dock icon and no window, just the gauge in your menu bar.

Notifications in Notification Center

The first time it has something to tell you, macOS asks once for permission. After that you can tune or silence it in System Settings like any other app.

Matches your menu bar

The icon is monochrome by default and tinted by macOS to match a light or dark menu bar. You can switch to the colored gauge in Settings.

Launch at login

macOS lists it under Login Items as "Allow in the Background", and it starts at login all the same.

Runs on macOS and on Linux, on both Intel/AMD and ARM. The Linux builds have no dependencies, and the macOS builds are signed and notarized by Apple, so they open without warnings.

Then turn it on

1. Let Claude Code share its usage numbers. If you already have a statusline, it keeps working exactly as before, and your settings are backed up first.

   claude-usage-tray hook installCopy

2. Start the tray. It hands your terminal straight back and keeps running after you close it.

   claude-usage-trayCopy

3. Start a Claude Code session. The numbers show up as soon as you send a prompt.

Changed your mind? claude-usage-tray hook uninstall puts your settings back exactly as they were.

There's no window to open. Your numbers sit at the top of the menu, and everything you can change is under Settings. Changes apply right away.

Shown on macOS. On Linux, the menu follows your desktop's style.

Use more than one Claude Code profile, like ~/.claude-work? The tray finds them all and gives each its own section in the menu. You choose which one the icon follows.

You need Claude Code 2.1.80 or newer

That's the first version that includes usage in the statusline data.

You need a Pro or Max subscription

Billing through an API key doesn't report usage numbers, so there's nothing to show.

Numbers only move while Claude Code is running

That's when Claude Code reports them. In between, the icon shows a question mark and keeps the last reading. Reset countdowns stay accurate, and the session drops back to 0% when its window rolls over.