Probe0 vs Claude Code Usage Monitor
Claude Code Usage Monitor reads the session logs Claude Code already writes and tells you how fast you are burning your 5-hour window. Probe0 sits in the request path on your machine, so it can also change what happens: cache a repeat call, send a cheap request to a local model, or pause a run at a hard spend cap.
An open-source (MIT) Python terminal tool that reads Claude Code's local session logs and shows live usage, burn rate, and predicted time-to-limit.
| Feature | Probe0 | Claude Code Usage Monitor | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position in the request path | Local proxy, every agent call passes through | Out of band, reads session logs | Even |
| Setup for one developer on a Mac | One proxy and one certificate, then every CLI is covered | Installed per tool, Claude Code only | Probe0 |
| Agents your coding work actually runs through | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor via the same proxy | Claude Code sessions only, by design | Probe0 |
| Spend enforcement | Hard cap per run and per day, warns then pauses | Warnings and an exit code, enforcement is DIY | Probe0 |
| Caching and coalescing | Exact cache, semantic cache, request coalescing | None, it does not touch requests | Probe0 |
| Calls that never leave the machine | Cache hits and local-model routing skip the network | Every call still goes upstream | Probe0 |
| Who made the call | Ledger tags every call with the originating process | Session logs carry no process origin | Probe0 |
| Attributing the saving | Each module toggles alone and reports what it saved | Reports usage, has no saving to attribute | Probe0 |
| Subscription quota window | Dollar cost and token ledger, no 5-hour window model | Models plan ceilings, resets, P90 predictions | Competitor |
Claude Code Usage Monitor models the 5-hour window better than anything else I have run: it parses the JSONL session files in your config directory, runs P90 analysis on your own history to work out which plan ceiling you are really against, captures Claude Code's official rate_limits payload through the statusline hook, and labels every exported value as official, local_estimate, experimental or unknown. That is a gauge, and a good one. If you are one developer running coding agents on a Mac, the thing standing between you and a smaller bill is not a better gauge, it is something in the request path. Probe0 is that: one local proxy and one certificate, after which Claude Code, Codex and Cursor all route through the same place with nothing configured per tool, and no Probe0 server exists anywhere for that traffic to reach.
A gauge cannot act. It can tell you that you will hit your ceiling in 41 minutes at your current burn rate, and it cannot stop the run, serve the sixth identical call from cache, send a commit-message request to a 7B model on your own GPU, or downgrade a model mid-session. Its warning is a visual nudge plus an exit code your own shell script has to handle. It is Claude Code only, which the project states plainly, so a week split between Codex and Claude Code shows up as one picture rather than the whole one. And because it reads logs rather than requests, it has no notion of which process on your machine made a given call, which is the question I usually want answered when a day costs more than it should.
Probe0 acts from where it sits. Exact Cache lives on local disk and a hit never touches the network. Semantic Cache holds a strict similarity floor and refuses to match anything carrying tool calls, because a wrong hit corrupts an agent run. Request Coalescing collapses simultaneous identical calls into one upstream call. Local Routing sends work to a model already loaded in Ollama or LM Studio and retries weak answers on the cloud, Model Tiering tries the cheap model first, and Spend Guard warns and then pauses at a hard cap per run and per day. The Recording ledger keeps model, tokens, real cost, latency and originating process for every call, which is also what lets it tell you when you are paying for a plan tier above what you use. Every module switches on or off on its own and reports what it saved, so the numbers are checkable rather than a single headline figure. The honest limits: macOS only, private beta, no team or multi-user gateway.
The verdict
Probe0 is the one I would install. It is the only one of the two that can cut the bill rather than describe it, it covers Claude Code, Codex and Cursor after a single certificate, and its ledger tells you which process spent the money. The exception is real: if you are on a Claude subscription and your only problem is running out of quota mid-afternoon, Claude Code Usage Monitor models that 5-hour window and reads history you already have, and Probe0 does not do that. Run both if you like, they never touch. But the tool that changes your spend is Probe0.
Questions
- Can Claude Code Usage Monitor stop a run before I hit my limit?
- No. It predicts and warns, and it exposes a near-limit exit code that your own scripts can act on, but enforcement is something you build yourself. Probe0's Spend Guard sets a hard cap per run and per day, warns as you approach it, then pauses the run.
- What is the best Claude Code Usage Monitor alternative that also cuts cost?
- An LLM proxy is the category you want, because only something in the request path can cache, coalesce or reroute calls. Probe0 is a local LLM proxy for AI coding agents that does exact and semantic caching, local LLM routing to Ollama or LM Studio, model tiering, and hard spend caps, with a ledger showing what each module saved.
- Does Probe0 track my Claude subscription 5-hour window?
- Not today. Probe0's Recording ledger tracks real dollar cost, tokens, latency and which process made each call, and uses that to flag when you are on a plan tier above your actual usage. Subscription quota window modelling with reset times and P90 plan detection is Claude Code Usage Monitor's strength, not Probe0's.
- Can I run both a usage monitor and an LLM proxy at the same time?
- Yes, and it works cleanly because they never touch. Claude Code Usage Monitor reads local session logs out of band while Probe0 handles LLM cost control in the request path, so you get quota forecasting from one and caching, routing and spend enforcement from the other.