two hours ago i made a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1s7ft31/start_collecting_data_on_what_your_claude_usage/) which showed raw token counts per usage percent. the feedback was good but the numbers were misleading. 99% of tokens are cache reads, which cost 10x less than input tokens. "4.3M tokens per 1%" sounded huge but meant almost nothing.

just deployed v0.1.1 which fixes this. it weights each token type by its API cost and derives the actual dollar budget anthropic allocates per window.

from my machine (max 20x, opus, 9 calibration ticks):                                                                   

>5h window: $363 budget = 20x × $18 pro base  
7d window: $1,900 budget = 20x × $95 pro base

the $18 pro base is derived: $363 divided by the 20x multiplier. a pro user running **ccmeter** would tell us if that's accurate.                                                             

the 7d cap is the real limit. maxing every 5h window for a week would burn $12,200 in API-equivalent compute. the 7d cap is $1,900. sustained heavy use (agents, overnight jobs) can only hit 16% of the 5h rate. the 5h window is burst. the 7d is the ceiling.

it now tracks changes over time. every report stores the budget. next run shows the delta. if your budget drops 5% overnight, you see it. across hundreds of users, a simultaneous drop is undeniable.

**how it works:** polls anthropic's usage API (the same one claude code already calls) every 2 minutes. records utilization ticks. cross-references against per-message token counts from your local `~/.claude/ logs`. when utilization goes from 15% to 16%, it knows exactly what tokens were used in that window. cost-weight them. that's your budget per percent.              

everything stays local in `~/.ccmeter/meter.db`. your oauth token only goes to anthropic's own API. MIT licensed, open to community contribution.

    pip install ccmeter
    ccmeter install    # background daemon, survives restarts
    ccmeter report     # see your numbers

needs a few days of data collection before calibration kicks in. install it, let it run, check back.

**what would actually help:** people on different tiers running this and sharing their ccmeter report output. if a pro user sees $18/5h and a max 5x user sees $90/5h, we've confirmed the multipliers are real. if the numbers don't line up, we've found something interesting.        

next time limits change, we'll have the data. not vibes, not screenshots of a progress bar. calibrated numbers from independent machines.

**repo:** [https://github.com/iteebz/ccmeter](https://github.com/iteebz/ccmeter)   

what does "20x usage" actually mean? i measured it. $363 per 5 hours.