I did not expect the scariest part of building with AI to be the bill itself.
It was the silence before it showed up.
When I started tracking my own usage, I kept seeing the same pattern: I would feel productive, ship a bunch of code, and then get hit with a cost number that made me stop and ask what I had actually built.
That is what led me to TokenBar.
I wanted the cost visible in the same place I was already working, not buried in a dashboard I would only check after the damage was done. In the menu bar, token usage stops being abstract. You see it while you work, which makes waste harder to ignore.
The lesson for me was simple:
If a cost is important, make it visible early.
If you are building with AI and the bill keeps surprising you, you probably do not need more reports. You need better feedback.
I built TokenBar because I needed that feedback myself.