CodexBar: Track AI Coding Limits in Your Menu Bar

CodexBar is a tiny macOS menu-bar app that keeps every AI coding limit you care about visible at a glance: how much of your Codex, Claude, Cursor or Gemini quota is left, and when each window resets, all without making you log into a dashboard. At nearly 17,000 stars it has become a favorite of developers who juggle several AI subscriptions, and setup is a single Homebrew command. This is the quickest tutorial in the section.

• CodexBar shows AI coding usage and reset timers in your macOS menu bar, live.
• It reads limits from local CLIs and sessions, so no extra login to a dashboard is needed.
• Install is one command: brew install --cask codexbar on macOS 14 or later.
• It is MIT-licensed and free, and covers dozens of providers (Codex, Claude, Cursor, Gemini, and more).

What is CodexBar and why do people love it?

CodexBar solves a small but constant annoyance of 2026: developers now pay for several AI coding tools, each with its own usage window, and there is no single place to see how much you have left. Hit a limit mid-task and you lose momentum. CodexBar sits in the menu bar and shows usage bars and reset countdowns for every provider you enable, reading the data from the CLIs and sessions already on your machine so you do not have to log into anything extra. It is beloved because it is exactly one well-made thing, and because running out of quota unexpectedly is a universally hated experience it quietly prevents.

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How do you install it?

You need macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer. The app installs as a Homebrew cask:

brew install --cask codexbar

Prefer the command-line companion, or on Linux? There is a CLI via a tap, and an Arch package:

# CLI (macOS/Linux) via Homebrew tap
brew install steipete/tap/codexbar

# Arch Linux
yay -S codexbar-cli

On first launch, open Settings, go to Providers, and enable the ones you use. You can also manage providers from the CLI:

codexbar config providers
codexbar config enable --provider grok

What are the gotchas?

Three. The full menu-bar app is macOS 14 and up only; Linux and Windows users get the CLI, not the graphical bar. It works by reading the local state of the providers you use, so each provider needs to be signed in through its own CLI, browser session, or API key for CodexBar to see its usage; it is a reader, not a login manager. And because it surfaces real usage data, the accuracy of any given provider tile depends on that provider exposing the numbers, so coverage varies by service. For a Mac developer running multiple AI tools, none of that dents the value.

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How does CodexBar see your usage without a login?

This is the detail that surprises people, and it is worth understanding because it is also the source of the app's one real limitation. CodexBar does not log into anything on your behalf. Instead it reads the state that the tools you already use leave on your machine: the local config and session files that a CLI like Codex or Claude writes, browser cookies for providers you are signed into, or an API key you hand it directly. From that local state it reads back each provider's reported usage and reset window and renders it as a tile. The upside is obvious: no extra credentials to manage and nothing new to trust. The consequence is that a provider only shows up accurately if you are already authenticated to it through one of those channels and if that provider actually exposes its usage numbers. So a tile that looks stale usually means the underlying session expired or the provider changed how it reports limits, not that CodexBar is broken. Signing back into the source tool fixes it. This local-only design also means CodexBar never sees your credentials leave your machine, which is a reassuring property for a tool watching several paid accounts at once.

Our take

CodexBar is a small tool that earns its stars by respecting a real, modern annoyance and solving only that. The multi-subscription AI developer is now a common species, and quota anxiety is a genuine tax on flow; a menu-bar glance that removes it is worth more than its tiny footprint suggests. The no-extra-login design is the clever bit, because the friction of checking usage was always the logins, not the looking. If you are on a Mac and pay for more than one AI coding tool, this is a two-minute install you will keep.

Original analysis by GenZTech. Tool documentation: steipete/CodexBar on GitHub.