Copilot Cost Tracker

💰 Real-time cost tracking for your GitHub Copilot usage, see exactly what you're spending, as you work.

Get live updates on your AI credit consumption with an always-visible status bar, budget alerts, and dashboards. Requires no API keys.

⚠️ Requires VS Code settings change Setup <30 seconds

Features
Screenshots
Requirements
Installation
Quick Start
Essential Configuration
Commands
UI Components
Troubleshooting
Advanced: Pricing & Configuration
Architecture
Development
Contributing
License

Features

Feature	Description
Live status bar	Session delta (`+2.3 cr`) and period total (`42.5 cr`) updated as you work
Budget threshold alerts	One-time VS Code notifications at configurable % thresholds (default: 75%, 90%, 100%)
Cost tree view	Hierarchical sidebar: budget → today/week/month → models → sessions
Dashboard webview	6-tab Chart.js dashboard: Overview, Budget health, Sessions, Models, Heatmap, Tokens
Billing period tracking	Correct period boundaries for any `billingCycleStartDay`, including short months
Multi-model pricing	Built-in rates for all June 2026 GA models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, GitHub
Custom model rates	Define credits-per-1M-tokens for models not in the built-in table
Model exclusion	Filter out models you don't want tracked (default: `gpt-4o-mini` code completions)
Adaptive polling	Interval doubles when idle (up to `pollIntervalMax`), resets immediately on new data
DB + JSONL failover	Reads `agent-traces.db` directly; falls back to JSONL debug logs automatically
Watermark recovery	On restart, resumes from the last processed timestamp — no duplicate counting
Periodic persistence	In-memory SQLite flushed to disk every 60 seconds

Screenshots

Status Bar for Live cost tracking

See session delta (+2.3 credits) and period total in real time.

Cost Overview Tree

Hierarchical breakdown: budget → period → models → sessions.

Dashboard (6-tab analytics)

Quick overview, Budget tracking, Sessions list, Models statistics, Tokens statistics with Chart.js visualizations.

Includes filters, sorting, and detailed breakdowns.

Requirements

Your VS Code must have these telemetry settings enabled so Copilot Chat writes usage data that this extension reads:

"github.copilot.chat.otel.dbSpanExporter.enabled": true

That's it. The extension reads data that Copilot Chat already creates no external APIs or authentication needed.

(Optional: enable JSONL fallback logs if the database becomes unavailable)

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

Simple:

Open Extensions in VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+X)
Search: Copilot Cost Tracker
Click Install

From VSIX (Manual)

code --install-extension copilot-cost-tracker-0.2.0.vsix

From Source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/copilot-cost-tracker.git
cd copilot-cost-tracker
npm install
npm run package
code --install-extension copilot-cost-tracker-0.2.0.vsix

Quick Start

3 steps:

Add VS Code setting (required)
Open VS Code Settings, search copilot.chat.otel.dbSpanExporter, set to true.
Or add to settings.json:
```
"github.copilot.chat.otel.dbSpanExporter.enabled": true
```
Then restart VS Code.
Open the extension
Click the Copilot Cost Tracker icon in the Activity Bar (left sidebar).
Start coding
Use Copilot normally. Credits appear in real-time at the bottom status bar.

Essential Configuration

Most users won't need to change anything. These are the most common settings:

Setting	Type	Default	What it does
`budgetCredits`	number	`180`	Your monthly AI credit budget (used for alerts & progress bar)
`billingCycleStartDay`	number	`1`	Day of month your billing resets (1–31)
`budgetWarningThresholds`	array	`[75, 90, 100]`	% thresholds for VS Code notifications
`currency`	string	`"USD"`	Display currency code
`showStatusBar`	boolean	`true`	Show cost in status bar

→ View all 20+ configuration options (polling, pricing, diagnostics, etc.)

Commands

Accessible via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) under the Copilot Cost Tracker category.

Command	Description
`Copilot Cost Tracker: Refresh Cost Data`	Forces a full ingest, refreshes pricing, updates all UI.
`Copilot Cost Tracker: Open Dashboard`	Opens the webview dashboard in a side panel.
`Copilot Cost Tracker: Scan All Workspaces`	Ingests all available data without watermark restriction.
`Copilot Cost Tracker: Scan Full History`	Ingests from timestamp 0 — backfills the entire available history.

UI Components

Status Bar

Displays at the bottom of VS Code:

$(credit-card)  +2.3 | 42.5 cr

+2.3 — Credits consumed in current session
42.5 cr — Total credits this billing period
Color-coded: yellow at 75%, red at 90%, based on budget

Cost Overview Tree

Hierarchical sidebar view:

Budget % and remaining
Today / This Week / This Month breakdowns
Models and sessions with turn counts

Dashboard

6-tab webview with Chart.js visualizations:

Overview: Daily spend, stat cards
Budget: Period progress, allowance/day
Sessions: Table of all sessions with cost
Models: Cost breakdown by model
Heatmap: GitHub-style contribution grid
Tokens: Input/output/cached token charts

Open via Copilot Cost Tracker: Open Dashboard command or the graph icon in the tree view.

Troubleshooting

No data appears / tree view is empty

Verify the required VS Code setting is enabled (see Requirements)
Restart VS Code
Set logLevel to "info" in settings and check the Copilot Cost Tracker Output Channel
Run Copilot Cost Tracker: Scan Full History to force a backfill

Cost appears wrong for a model

Add custom rates via copilotCostTracker.customModelRates setting
Unknown models default to GPT-4o rates; check logs for warnings

Budget period shows wrong start date

Verify billingCycleStartDay matches your GitHub billing cycle (GitHub → Settings → Billing and plans)
If startDay=31 and the month has fewer days, it correctly uses the last day of that month

Extension not activating

Requires VS Code ^1.85.0
Loads after VS Code startup (a few seconds), not instantly
Check VS Code Developer Console (Help → Toggle Developer Tools) for errors

Advanced: Pricing & Configuration

Full Configuration Reference

All settings under copilotCostTracker.*:

Billing: billingCycleStartDay, budgetCredits, budgetWarningThresholds
Pricing: customModelRates, excludedModels, pricingUrl
Data: telemetrySource, pollIntervalMin, pollIntervalMax, initialScanDays
Display: currency, exchangeRate, exchangeRate, showStatusBar
Debug: logLevel

→ View detailed configuration docs

Built-in Pricing Rates (June 2026)

Official rates for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, GitHub models:

OpenAI: GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4, GPT-5-mini, etc.
Anthropic: Claude Opus/Sonnet/Haiku with cache support
Google: Gemini models
GitHub: Copilot fine-tuned models

Define custom rates for unlisted models:

"copilotCostTracker.customModelRates": {
  "my-model": { "input": 150, "output": 600 }
}

→ View complete pricing table

Architecture

This extension is built with:

sql.js: In-memory SQLite database (zero external runtime dependencies)
VS Code API: Settings, status bar, webview, Output Channel
Chart.js: Dashboard visualizations
Adaptive polling: Responsive during use, silent when idle

Data flows from VS Code's internal telemetry → traces database → cost calculation → in-memory DB → UI.

For deep technical details on data flow, modules, persistence, and billing period logic:

→ Read ARCHITECTURE.md

Development

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/copilot-cost-tracker.git
cd copilot-cost-tracker
npm install
npm run watch          # Rebuilds on changes
code .                 # Open in VS Code

Press F5 to launch extension in a debug window.

Build & Package

npm run build          # Development build with source maps
npm run package        # Create .vsix file for distribution
npm test               # Run unit tests (vitest)
npm run test:watch     # Watch mode

Project Structure

src/
  extension.ts         # Entry point, wires all modules
  config.ts           # Settings management
  billing.ts          # Billing period calculations
  database/           # In-memory SQL database
  parser/             # Trace data parsing
  pricing/            # Cost calculation engine
  watcher/            # Data polling & ingestion
  views/              # UI: status bar, tree, dashboard
test/
  billing.test.ts     # 15 unit tests for billing math

See ARCHITECTURE.md for full module documentation.

TypeScript & Type Safety

tsconfig.json uses strict: true. There are 8 pre-existing type errors from sql.js (no TypeScript declarations), but these don't affect the build. To fix:

# Add declaration file
echo "declare module 'sql.js';" > src/sql-js.d.ts

Contributing

Pull requests welcome! Please:

Follow the existing code style (Prettier + ESLint config included)
Add tests for new features
Update docs if behavior changes
Reference any GitHub issues in commit messages

For architectural decisions and design notes, see .context/ublang.md.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE

Copilot Cost Tracker

Hoxlegion

Copilot Cost Tracker

Table of Contents

Features

Screenshots

Status Bar for Live cost tracking

Cost Overview Tree

Dashboard (6-tab analytics)

Requirements

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

From VSIX (Manual)

From Source

Quick Start

Essential Configuration

Commands

UI Components

Status Bar

Cost Overview Tree

Dashboard

Troubleshooting

Advanced: Pricing & Configuration

Full Configuration Reference

Built-in Pricing Rates (June 2026)

Architecture

Development

Quick Start

Build & Package

Project Structure

TypeScript & Type Safety

Contributing

License