Copilot Token Meter

Live token consumption for GitHub Copilot agent sessions, inside VS Code:

Status bar: In 2.96M · Out 132k · Think 86k for the latest session (or today). Hover for the full breakdown, click to open the sidebar.
Token Meter sidebar (activity bar): Current session, Today, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, All time, Recent sessions and Daily. Each shows input (fresh / cache read / cache write), output, reasoning, AI credits and model calls, plus a per-model breakdown. Sessions drill down into turns, individual model calls and sub-agents.

What the numbers mean

Metric	Meaning
Input	Prompt tokens sent to the model per call: fresh (uncached) + cache read + cache write. The whole context is re-sent on every call, so this is usually the largest number.
Output	Tokens generated by the model.
Reasoning ("Think")	Reasoning / thinking tokens reported by the model. Most models count them within Output; Gemini reports them separately.
AI credits	Credits billed by Copilot for the calls (`total_nano_aiu` ÷ 10⁹).

Per-call values come from the billing breakdown Copilot records (token_details_json), falling back to the flat token columns when it is missing.

Data source and privacy

The extension reads ~/.copilot/session-store.db, the SQLite store where the Copilot CLI and agent host record every model call (assistant_usage_events) and session (sessions). It opens the file read-only, polls it every few seconds and never sends anything anywhere. It uses VS Code's built-in node:sqlite, so there are no dependencies.

Only model calls recorded in that store are counted. Copilot Chat usage logged elsewhere (for example the Chat panel's debug logs) is not included.

The store is an internal Copilot file, not a public API. If a future Copilot release changes it, the sidebar shows an explanatory message instead of numbers.

Requirements

VS Code 1.103 or later (the first release whose runtime includes node:sqlite).
The GitHub Copilot CLI or the VS Code agent host, which write ~/.copilot/session-store.db.
The meter shows in regular VS Code windows. The dedicated Agents window only loads a restricted set of extensions.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`copilotTokenMeter.databasePath`	`""`	Store path; empty means `~/.copilot/session-store.db`.
`copilotTokenMeter.refreshIntervalSeconds`	`5`	Polling interval.
`copilotTokenMeter.statusBarScope`	`latestSession`	`latestSession` or `today`. Also toggled from the sidebar title bar.
`copilotTokenMeter.recentSessionCount`	`20`	Sessions listed under Recent sessions.
`copilotTokenMeter.dailyHistoryDays`	`14`	Days listed under Daily.

Commands (Token Meter: in the Command Palette): Refresh, Show Token Usage, Toggle Status Bar Scope, Open Settings. To hide the status bar item, right-click the status bar and untick Copilot Token Meter.

Development

Requires Node.js 22.13 or later (for node:sqlite).

npm test                    # unit tests (node:test)
npm run test:integration    # runs the extension in an isolated VS Code instance against a fixture store
npm run package             # builds copilot-token-meter-<version>.vsix
code --install-extension copilot-token-meter-0.1.0.vsix --force
npm run publish             # publishes to the Marketplace (after `npx @vscode/vsce login YoussefSaleh`)

test:integration uses %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe; set VSCODE_EXECUTABLE to use another build.

Disclaimer

Copilot Token Meter is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or supported by GitHub or Microsoft. GitHub Copilot is a trademark of GitHub, Inc.