Throttle

Throttle is a native macOS menu bar application that monitors Claude Code usage in real time and helps reduce token waste. It sits quietly in the menu bar showing your 5-hour and weekly usage limits, with predictions for when you will hit your cap at the current burn rate. The goal is to prevent lockouts from catching you mid-task by making your consumption visible and manageable.

The app reads token counts and timestamps from the local Claude projects directory. It does not connect to any cloud service, does not require an account, and sends no telemetry. Everything happens on the Mac, which makes it useful for developers who care about privacy or work on sensitive projects.

Beyond monitoring, Throttle includes a multi-session cockpit. Users can run several Claude projects at once, each displayed with its real cost, active model, and memory usage. The cockpit enforces a shared binding limit and a memory-pressure gate that prevents over-saturating the machine. For people juggling multiple projects or context windows, this keeps everything in one view instead of scattered across terminal sessions.

Token optimization is where Throttle earns back its price. It offers one-click reply styles that compress Claude's output without cutting the code or reasoning. The Concise mode trims excess prose, while the more aggressive Caveman mode strips responses down significantly. These styles apply across every session, terminal and cockpit alike. There is also an OCR feature that converts screenshots to text locally before sending, which costs a fraction of the tokens that a vision image would.

Three AI providers are available behind a single toggle: Apple Intelligence for local processing, a Claude Pro or Max subscription through Safari, or a personal Claude API key. The flexibility means users are not locked into one billing arrangement.

Pricing splits into a free tier and a Pro tier. The free meter is open source, so anyone can audit exactly what the app does. The Pro tier costs twenty-nine euros as a one-time purchase, with a nineteen euro launch discount, and includes the AI assistant, optimizer features, and token compression. One license covers up to three Macs, which is practical for developers with multiple machines.

Throttle is signed and notarized by Apple, so it installs without Gatekeeper warnings. It requires macOS 14 or later. For anyone using Claude Code regularly and running into usage limits, Throttle provides visibility and control that the default setup lacks.