See what Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and 37 more AI coding tools cost, per session and per model,
from the tokens your provider actually billed. Free, Apache-2.0, and it runs on your machine.
Quickstart · Docs · Compare · Changelog · Website
npx @superbased/observerNo install, no config, no network. It reads the session logs your coding agents already keep on disk, prints a 30-day cost table by tool and model, and deletes its temporary database on exit.
One local binary that tracks Claude Code token usage, Codex cost and Cursor spend side by side, and helps you control them.
- Provider-exact cost, not estimates. An optional local proxy records the tokens your provider returned: net input, 5-minute vs 1-hour cache writes, reasoning tokens and long-context repricing. Log-only trackers have to estimate those.
- Every coding agent in one place. 40 adapters normalize Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Cline, Aider, Kiro, Devin, OpenCode, Junie and more into one local database.
- Local-first, no account. No telemetry and no sign-in. The watcher, dashboard, MCP server and CLI
make no outbound calls on your behalf; everything lives in one SQLite file under
~/.observer/. - Know the next bill before it lands. Prompt-cache tracking with expiry warnings, a low / typical / high cost band for your next message, and a 5-hour and weekly limit gauge for proxied sessions.
- Guardrails on your own agents. The guard checks each agent action against built-in rules
(destructive commands, secrets egress, MCP pinning, budgets) and your own. It starts in observe
mode;
observer guard simulatereplays your history before you turn on enforcement. - Your agents as terminals, from anywhere. Launch agent CLIs from the dashboard as real terminals, join a running session from a paired device over your Tailscale tailnet, and hand a session from one tool to another.
| SuperBased | ccusage | CodeBurn | Langfuse | Helicone | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Coding-agent cost & control | CC/Codex cost meter | Local CC spend + budget toolkit | LLM-app observability | LLM-app observability + gateway | AI gateway |
| Coding tools covered | 40 adapters | Claude Code, Codex, + companion pkgs | 31-36 per their own docs | Instrument-per-app | Instrument-per-app | Anything routed through it |
| Provider-reported (not estimated) tokens | ✓ via local proxy | Partial (from logs) | Partial (from logs) | ✓ (SDK) | ✓ (proxy) | ✓ (proxy) |
| Cache 5-min vs 1-hour write split | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Reasoning + long-context surcharge accounting | ✓ | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Runs 100% local, no cloud required | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (opt-in team-sync preview) | Self-host a stack | Self-host or SaaS | Self-host |
| Agent-queryable memory over your history (MCP) | ✓ | ✓ (usage MCP) | ✓ | ✓ (trace MCP) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Cross-tool session handoff | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT | MIT | MIT (core) | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
Checked against each project's public repo (July 2026). Each of these tools is good at what it was built for; the full comparison covers more tools and when to pick which.
| Channel | Command |
|---|---|
| npm | npm install -g @superbased/observer |
| PyPI | uv tool install superbased-observer (or pipx install / pip install) |
| VS Code | code --install-extension superbased.superbased-observer (Cursor, VSCodium and Windsurf: Open VSX) |
| Installer | curl -fsSLO https://github.com/superbasedapp/observer/releases/latest/download/install.sh && sh install.sh |
Every channel ships the same prebuilt, pure-Go binary for Linux (x64, arm64), macOS (Intel, Apple
Silicon) and Windows x64. The installer (Windows: install.ps1) also offers smaller editions
(minimal, developer, managed), checks each archive against SHA256SUMS and its Ed25519
signature, never runs sudo, and supports offline installs with --from-dir. Run
sh install.sh --help for every option.
observer start # proxy + watcher + dashboard; opens http://localhost:8081
observer scan # backfill history from the session logs already on disk- Route your agent through the proxy for provider-exact tokens. In the dashboard, open
Compression, click your tool's status pill and choose Route through the observer proxy: it
previews the exact config change and writes only when you confirm. One-off alternatives:
observer claude/observer codex, orANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8820. - Use your agent as normal. Sessions, cost and cache numbers appear within minutes.
- Optional:
observer initalso registers the MCP server so your agents can query their own history (it adds tool schemas to every turn, so it stays opt-in).
observer doctor checks the install; observer status shows what has been captured.
- Dashboard (
localhost:8081): Overview, Live, Sessions, Cost, Plans & limits, Cache, Security, Settings and more, filterable by tool and project, and readable on a phone. - Cost you can reconcile: per session, model, project and tool, with cache read/write splits and a session drill-down down to each API turn.
- Cross-tool memory: an opt-in MCP server so an agent can ask what another agent already read,
ran or broke in the same repo, plus
observer <tool> --continue-from <session>handoffs. - Waste detection: stale re-reads, repeated commands and files several agents fight over.
- Terminals: daemon-owned PTY terminals with multi-seat join, a live cost cockpit and native resume after a restart.
- Your editor and shell: a VS Code extension (status bar, sidebar, dashboard tab), a one-line
observer statusline, and a CLI for everything (observer usage,cost,predict,tail).
 Sessions: every session from every agent, with cost and tags. |
 Cache: which prompt caches are warm and when they go cold. |
Supported agents include Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot and Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI, Cline and Cline CLI, Antigravity, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, Hermes, Kilo Code, Qwen Code, Kiro CLI, Kiro Crew, Crush, Kimi Code, Grok, Devin, Aider, Qoder, goose, droid, Open Interpreter, Command Code, Junie, Poolside, Zed, Mistral Code, Muse, Prime Agent, DeepSeek, zcode, Freebuff, Cowork and Grok Bot, plus ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity on the web through an optional browser extension. Per-tool setup: superbased.app/docs/track.
Click any session to open its detail view. Four of its tabs:
 Overview: cost, tokens by billing tier and the models used. |
 Messages: each message with its model, tool calls and cost. |
 Cost & limits: what the next message will cost and how much of your limit is left. |
 Cache: the session's live cache, hits, writes and rewrites. |
SuperBased sends no telemetry and needs no account. It stores paths, commands and short excerpts,
scrubs secrets before anything is written, and binds the proxy and dashboard to 127.0.0.1 by
default. The proxy forwards your own requests, unchanged, to the provider you already use. Remove
everything with observer uninstall --all --purge. Details: PRIVACY.md.
- Quickstart and install options
- Connect your agents and track costs by tool
- Guides: dashboard, token and cost tracking, cache tracking, cost predictor, terminals, security guard, MCP server
- Reference: CLI, configuration, measurement honesty
Running coding agents across a whole engineering org? SuperBased also offers central visibility across developers, budgets and policy, and SSO sign-in. See SuperBased for organizations or write to contact@superbased.app.
Questions go to Discussions, bugs and adapter requests to Issues, and security reports through SECURITY.md. Pull requests are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md (building needs Go 1.26+, no CGO). If SuperBased saves you a surprise bill, a star helps others find it.