Claude Message Level Token Usage

Shows per-turn token usage and estimated cost for Claude Code in the VS Code status bar.

Claude Message Level Token Usage screenshot

Why /compact saves you money

Claude Code sends your entire conversation history with every message. As a session grows, that context accumulates — you end up paying for the same earlier messages over and over. Running /compact summarizes the history into a short digest, which can cut token costs by 60–80% mid-session without losing the thread of the conversation.

/compact notification

Every 10 user messages (configurable), a notification pops up reminding you to compact:

Click Copy /compact → the command is copied to your clipboard and Claude Code is focused. Just paste and press Enter.
Click Dismiss or the X to close the notification without doing anything.

Settings

Open VS Code Settings and search Claude Token Tracker.

Setting	Default	Description
`claudeTokenTracker.compactNotification`	`true`	Enable or disable the /compact reminder notification
`claudeTokenTracker.compactThreshold`	`10`	Number of user messages between notifications

Set compactThreshold lower (e.g. 5) for shorter sessions, or set compactNotification to false to turn off reminders entirely.

Status bar

The status bar item shows the total token count and cost for the last complete turn, including all intermediate tool-use steps. Click it for a full breakdown by token type (input, output, cache read/write).

Created by Wahidul Hasan Abir
LinkedIn: wahidul hasan abir