tokcat is a free, open-source macOS menu bar app that reads local session logs from coding CLIs and turns them into token charts, streaks, and a live tokens-per-minute rate. Tokens 4 Breakfast starts from a different question: not how many tokens you burned, but what your whole AI bill is doing and whether you are about to hit a limit.
The point is not to pretend every alternative is bad. It is to make the tradeoff obvious for a Mac builder who needs a live operating signal.
tokcat is built around token volume, with cost estimated from a bundled model price table. T4B is built around spend: live cost, a month-end projection, and the rate-limit pressure that decides whether your session survives the afternoon.
For most builders, fixed plans like Claude Pro or Max, ChatGPT Plus, Cursor, and Copilot are the larger line item. tokcat does not track subscriptions. T4B keeps them next to usage-based spend so the monthly total is the real one.
tokcat shows you what already happened, including streaks and daily summaries. T4B adds the controls that change the outcome: per-provider budgets, Focus Mode session caps for runaway agent loops, and alerts before a limit lands.
tokcat reads local logs for a wide set of coding CLIs and needs no keys for usage history. T4B covers eight providers including Claude Web live rate limits via session key, with the other providers connected by a single API key paste. Both keep your data on your Mac.
Use tokcat when
You want a free, open-source token visualizer with genuinely fun charts, you live across many coding CLIs including OpenCode, Amp, Droid, Hermes, or Grok Build, or you are on an older macOS release. It is a good tool and it costs nothing.
Use T4B when
The number you care about is money rather than token volume, your AI subscriptions matter as much as your API usage, and you want budgets, session caps, forecasting, and Claude limit runway in one local Mac app.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | tokcat | Tokens 4 Breakfast |
|---|---|---|
| Price and license | Free and open source under the MIT license. No paid tier, no account. | Free plan for one provider, then $7.99 one time for all eight. Commercial and closed source, with direct support. |
| Primary metric | Token counts, plus a cost estimate derived from a bundled model price table. | Dollar spend across providers, with a month-end forecast and API-equivalent value on subscription plans. |
| AI subscriptions | Not tracked. Fixed monthly plans stay outside the picture. | Tracked as part of the bill, so Claude Pro or Max, ChatGPT Plus, Cursor, and Copilot sit beside usage-based costs. |
| Budgets and session caps | Agent limit cards show provider quota windows, read only. | Per-provider daily and weekly budgets, plus Focus Mode session caps and alerts before a limit is reached. |
| Coverage | Ten coding clients read from local logs, including Codex CLI, OpenCode, Amp, Droid, Hermes, and Grok Build. | Eight providers including Claude Web live rate limits, Claude Code, OpenAI, Cursor, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral, and OpenRouter. |
| Requirements | macOS 11 or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel. | macOS 14.6 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. |
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