Comparison
ccusage vs JP the Cat — price & features
How JP the Cat and ccusage compare as AI coding usage trackers — the honest facts, side by side.
| Attribute | JP the Cat | ccusage |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $12.99 one-time (+$9.99/Mac) | Free (open source) |
| Theme | light | n/a |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Form factor | menu bar | CLI |
| Shows | real $ (Claude) + official % / notional $ (Codex, Grok) | real $ cost |
| Providers | Claude Code + Codex + Grok + Muse Spark live, 59 more on roadmap | Claude Code (Codex via plugins) |
JP the Cat
Light-themed, honest-provenance meter with tested cache-tier billing, clear data provenance, and explicit labels for notional Codex and Grok list-price figures. Price: $12.99 one-time (+$9.99/Mac). Shows: real $ (Claude) + official % / notional $ (Codex, Grok).
ccusage
The dominant free CLI. Prices all cache-creation at the single 5-minute rate (issue #899), under-billing 1-hour cache writes by ~60%. Price: Free (open source). Shows: real $ cost.
Common questions
- Is JP the Cat or ccusage better?
- They serve different needs — JP the Cat shows real $ (Claude) + official % / notional $ (Codex, Grok), ccusage shows real $ cost. The table lays out the facts so you can choose.
Track your real cost with JP the Cat
A live menu-bar total, priced to the cent from your local logs — official limits, honest notional labels.
Download MeowPrefer Homebrew? Install the same signed, notarized app from JP's public tap.
brew tap 8bittts/jpthecat
brew trust 8bittts/jpthecat
brew install --cask jpthecat