Monitor Claude Code Costs with the /statusline Command

8/10/2025

Keep Your Claude Code Costs in Check: A Deep Dive into the /statusline Command

Hey everyone, let's talk about something that's probably on the mind of every developer using large language models: cost. These tools are incredibly powerful, but that power comes at a price, & it's not always easy to keep track of how much you're spending. If you're a heavy user of Anthropic's Claude Code, you're in for a treat. There's a nifty little feature that, when combined with a clever third-party tool, gives you a real-time pulse on your spending. I'm talking about the

/statusline

command, & honestly, it's a game-changer for managing your usage.

We're going to do a deep dive into this feature. We'll cover what it is, how to set it up, & how to read its output so you're never surprised by your bill again. It's like having a little financial watchdog right in your code editor. Pretty cool, right?

First Off, What's Claude Code & Why Should You Care About Costs?

For those who might not be familiar, Claude Code is an AI coding assistant from Anthropic. Think of it as a super-intelligent pair programmer that can help you with everything from writing boilerplate code to debugging complex algorithms. It's an amazing tool that can seriously boost your productivity.

But here's the thing: like most powerful AI models, using Claude Code isn't free. You're typically charged based on the number of "tokens" you use, which are basically pieces of words. The more you code with Claude, the more tokens you use, & the higher your bill. This is where things can get a little tricky. It's easy to get lost in the flow of coding & not realize how much you're racking up in usage fees. That's why having a real-time monitoring tool is so important.

The /statusline Command: Your Gateway to Real-Time Insights

The

/statusline

command is a built-in feature of Claude Code that lets you customize the status bar at the bottom of your editor. You can use it to display all sorts of useful information, like the current file you're working on, your Git branch, or the AI model you're using. It's super flexible & can be configured to show whatever you want.

But the real magic happens when you pair the

/statusline

command with a fantastic open-source tool called

ccusage

. This command-line interface (CLI) tool is designed specifically for analyzing your Claude Code usage from the local files where it's stored. It can give you daily reports, monthly summaries, & even a breakdown of your usage by conversation session.

And, most importantly for our purposes,

ccusage

has a

statusline

command that provides a compact, real-time view of your Claude Code costs. This is what we're going to focus on.

Setting Up Your Cost-Monitoring Status Line

Getting this set up is surprisingly simple. Here's a quick rundown of what you need to do:

Install
1ccusage
: The
1ccusage
tool is the heart of our cost-monitoring system. You can install it using
1bun
, a fast JavaScript runtime. The command is usually
1bun x ccusage
.
Configure Your Claude Code Settings: You'll need to tell Claude Code to use the
1ccusage statusline
command to populate its status bar. You do this by editing your
1~/.claude/settings.json
file. You'll add a little snippet of JSON that looks something like this: