Copilot Cost Tracker

💰 Real-time cost tracking for your GitHub Copilot usage. See exactly what you are spending as you work.

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

⚠️ 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%)
Rich sidebar panel	Styled overview: budget bar, 14-day sparkline, today/week, pace, model & workspace breakdowns, recent sessions
Dashboard webview	5-tab Chart.js dashboard: Dashboard, Activity, Models, Efficiency, Budget
Efficiency Grade	A–F grade with gauge, scoring cache reuse, context size, and input:output ratio
Context Tax visualization	Signature view of how much conversation history each turn resends, with average growth curve
Cost Story digest	Plain-language summary of your spend, top model, priciest session, and cache health
Productivity metrics	Cost per turn and cost per active hour, alongside cache savings and forecast
Theme-aware UI	Charts, legends, and tooltips adapt to light and dark VS Code themes
Global date filtering	Filter all dashboard tabs by custom date range (Today, 7d, 30d, This Period, or custom)
Reactive dashboard	All tabs update instantly when filter changes, no page reload needed
Accurate model attribution	Per-model cost split across multi-model sessions, not just the session's primary model
Workspace focus insights	Top workspace card + workspace leaderboard for current range
Turn Explorer analytics	Turn-level discovery with LLM calls, tool calls, cache %, expand/collapse, and filters
Cache savings visibility	Range-level savings card with model breakdown
Billing period tracking	Correct period boundaries for any `billingCycleStartDay`, including short months
Multi-model prices	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)
Context weight notifications	Warnings at 20K, 40K, 80K tokens when active sessions accumulate heavy context
Context awareness alerts	Identifies patterns: micro-turn bloat, raw paste, premium model misallocation, agent sprawl
File watcher strategy	Event-driven updates with 2s debounce for near-instant status bar refresh (sub-second after data arrival)
Response latency metrics	Tracks model response times and displays avg latency and P90 per model
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.

Styled panel: budget bar, 14-day sparkline, today/week, pace, and model/workspace breakdowns.

Dashboard (5-tab analytics)

Dashboard hero with Efficiency Grade and Context Tax, plus Activity, Models, Efficiency, and Budget tabs.

Includes global date range filters, sorting, and detailed breakdowns.

Requirements

Copilot Chat must have this telemetry setting enabled so usage data is written for this extension to read: The extension attempts to enable this automatically on activation. If VS Code policy/settings scope blocks automatic updates, set it manually.

"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

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

From VSIX (Manual)

code --install-extension copilot-cost-tracker-0.6.5.vsix

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Hoxlegion/copilot-cost-tracker-vsc.git
cd copilot-cost-tracker
npm install
npm run package
code --install-extension copilot-cost-tracker-0.6.5.vsix

Quick Start

3 steps:

Verify telemetry setting (usually automatic)
On activation, the extension attempts to set this to true automatically.
If needed, set it manually in settings.json:
```
"github.copilot.chat.otel.dbSpanExporter.enabled": true
```

Then restart VS Code if you still don't see data.

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). Set to `0` to disable budget tracking.
`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
`contextWeightNotifications`	boolean	`true`	Show warnings for heavy context (20K, 40K, 80K tokens)
`microTurnGapSeconds`	number	`120`	Max seconds between turns for micro-turn pattern detection
`microTurnMinCount`	number	`5`	Consecutive rapid turns to trigger Micro-Turn Bloat alert
`rawPasteMinInputTokens`	number	`15000`	Min uncached tokens in a turn to trigger Raw Paste alert
`premiumMisallocationMinCredits`	number	`2`	Min credits for Premium Model Misallocation alert
`agentSprawlMinInputTokens`	number	`80000`	Min input tokens to trigger Massive Context Turn alert

See the Advanced: Pricing & Configuration section below for the full settings reference.

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) +$0.42 | $4.25 | $(brain) 35K

+$0.42 — USD spent in the current session (since activation)
$4.25 — Total spend this billing period
$(brain) 35K — Active chat context weight (tokens)
Color-coded by budget thresholds and pacing (yellow when approaching, red when over)
Click for a quick menu: period summary, context, top models, dashboard, refresh, settings

Styled panel in the Activity Bar:

Budget bar with % used and reset date
14-day credit sparkline
Today / This Week totals and projected pace
Model and workspace breakdowns
Recent sessions with cost, model, and turn counts

Dashboard

5-tab webview with Chart.js visualizations and global date range filtering:

Dashboard: Today/period hero cards, Efficiency Grade (A–F), Context Tax visualization, Cost Story digest, productivity metrics (cost/turn, cost/active hour), cache savings, forecast, daily activity chart, cost drivers, and smart alerts
Activity: Activity heatmap, workspace filter, recent sessions, sessions table, and a Turn Explorer with per-turn LLM/tool calls and cache %
Models: Per-model cost breakdown (accurate across multi-model sessions) with avg credits/turn, token usage, cache %, avg and P90 latency, plus bar/pie/token-flow charts
Efficiency: Optimization score, cache/context/IO metrics, context scatter & growth charts, surface breakdown, alerts, and a savings playbook
Budget: Budget gauge, pacing status, forecast, and timeline

All tabs respond to the global date range filter for focused analysis.

The Turn Explorer (Activity tab) includes:

Expand all / Collapse all
Only rows with tools filter
Only anomalies filter (cache hit < 40% or turn used tools)
Last Active timestamp for each turn

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

Troubleshooting

No data appears / sidebar 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-5.4-tier fallback 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, showStatusBar
Debug: logLevel

Tip: open VS Code Settings and search for copilotCostTracker. to browse all available options.

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 }
}

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
Svelte: Reactive dashboard webview with component-based architecture
Chart.js: Dashboard visualizations
File watcher strategy: Event-driven file monitoring with debouncing for responsive UI updates
Context tracking: Real-time session context weight monitoring with granular alerts

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

For deeper implementation details, inspect the source under src/ and tests under test/.

Development

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/Hoxlegion/copilot-cost-tracker-vsc.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
npm run deploy:local   # Builds and installs to local VS Code

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, sidebar, dashboard
    helpers/          # View helper functions
  webview/            # Svelte dashboard application
    components/
      charts/         # Chart.js wrappers (Daily, Heatmap, Model, Context charts)
      shared/         # Reusable components (StatCard, BudgetBar, DataTable, GlobalFilter,
                      #   EfficiencyGrade, ContextCostHero, CostStory)
      tabs/           # Tab components (Dashboard, Activity, Models, Efficiency, Budget)
    stores/           # Svelte stores (dashboard data, filter state)
    utils/            # Formatting, palette, chart styles, model aggregation
    types.ts          # TypeScript interfaces
test/
  billing.test.ts     # Billing period calculation tests

See the src/ folders above for module boundaries and ownership.

Contributing

Pull requests welcome! Please:

Follow the existing code style and run npm run lint
Add tests for new features
Update docs if behavior changes
Reference any GitHub issues in commit messages

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 Sidebar

Dashboard (5-tab analytics)

Requirements

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

From VSIX (Manual)

From Source

Quick Start

Essential Configuration

Commands

UI Components

Status Bar

Cost Overview Sidebar

Dashboard

Troubleshooting

Advanced: Pricing & Configuration

Full Configuration Reference

Built-in Pricing Rates (June 2026)

Architecture

Development

Quick Start

Build & Package

Project Structure

Contributing

License