How to check your Claude usage on a Mac (all four ways)

To check your Claude usage on a Mac, open claude.ai or the Claude desktop app, click your name at the bottom left, then Settings and Usage. That page shows how much of your session window and weekly limits you have used, and when each resets. There are three other ways, and each suits a different working style.

The short answer

There are four practical ways to see your Claude usage on a Mac, and they differ mainly in how much effort it takes to look:

1. The usage page in claude.ai settings. Official, complete, and always correct. You have to go and look at it.
2. The /usage command in Claude Code. Instant, in the terminal, if that is where you already work.
3. A browser based tracker. Keeps the number visible while the browser is open.
4. A macOS menu bar app. Always on screen, from any app, with no browser tab and no terminal.

The right one depends on whether you want to check your usage or simply know it. The first two answer a question you have to remember to ask. The last two put the answer where you will see it before you need to ask.

First, what Claude is actually counting

Before the four methods, it helps to know what you are looking at, because Claude does not have one single limit.

Every paid plan has a rolling session window of five hours. It does not start at midnight or on a schedule. It starts the moment you send your first message after a quiet period, and runs for five hours from there. This is why two people on the same plan can have completely different reset times, and why your own reset time moves from day to day. We go deeper on this in our guide to Claude's 5-hour limit.

On top of that, paid plans carry weekly caps that reset on a fixed schedule assigned to your account. Higher tiers add a separate cap for the most capable models, so heavy use of the top model can run out before your general weekly allowance does.

One thing that surprises people: Anthropic does not publish fixed prompt counts. Capacity is expressed as a multiplier of the Pro plan rather than a number of messages, because how fast you burn through it depends on conversation length, attachments, model choice and which features you use. That is exactly why every method below reports a percentage rather than "you have 41 messages left".

Way 1: the usage page in claude.ai settings

This is the source of truth. Everything else on this page reads the same underlying data.

1. Open claude.ai in any browser, or open the Claude desktop app for Mac.
2. Click your name or account icon at the bottom left of the sidebar.
3. Choose Settings.
4. Open the Usage section.

You will see your current session window with a percentage used and a reset time, plus your weekly limits with their own reset times. If you are on a higher tier you will also see the separate allowance for the most capable model listed on its own.

Best for: settling a question definitively, or checking your limits before starting something long. Worst for: noticing that you are close to a wall while you are busy doing something else, because nothing prompts you to look.

Way 2: the /usage command in Claude Code

If you use Claude Code in a terminal, you never have to leave it. Type:

/usage

and press Return. Claude Code prints your session and weekly usage with reset times, in place, in about a second. It is the fastest of the four if a terminal is already open in front of you.

Two caveats. It only reflects the account Claude Code is authenticated as, which may not be the account you use in the browser if you have more than one. And it is still a thing you have to type, so it answers the question rather than removing it.

Best for: developers who live in the terminal. Worst for: anyone who mostly uses Claude through the web or desktop app, where the command does not exist.

Way 3: browser based trackers

Several browser extensions read the same usage data from the Claude web app and surface it as a toolbar badge or popup, so the number is visible without opening Settings each time.

They work, and they are free, but they inherit the browser's limitations. The number is only there when the browser is running and, in most cases, only refreshes when a Claude tab is open. If you use the Claude desktop app, or Claude Code, or you simply close your browser while working, the tracker goes quiet at exactly the moment you would most want it.

There is also a question worth asking of any third party tool: where do your credentials go? Prefer extensions that read the data locally and talk directly to Claude, rather than routing your session through a server you do not control.

Best for: people who work almost entirely inside a browser tab. Worst for: mixed workflows, or anyone who wants the number visible when the browser is closed.

Way 4: the macOS menu bar

The fourth option is to stop checking altogether and put the number somewhere you cannot help but see it. On a Mac that means the menu bar, which is visible from every app, at all times, whatever you happen to be doing.

This is the approach tokn.watch takes: you connect it to your Claude account once, and your remaining percentage and reset countdown sit in the menu bar permanently. There is no tab to keep open, no command to remember, and no separate window. If you also use ChatGPT it will show both providers side by side, which matters because the two use completely different limit systems and reset on different clocks.

Setup is a one-time thing, and there is a walkthrough in the connect your Claude account FAQ. After that the number simply exists in the corner of the screen.

Best for: knowing where you stand without asking. Worst for: people who genuinely never want another icon in their menu bar, which is a fair preference.

Which method should you use?

If you only check occasionally, the settings page is fine and costs nothing. If you hit limits often enough to be annoyed by them, the useful question is not "how do I check faster" but "how do I stop being surprised", and that points at the always-visible options.

What to do when you are close to the limit

Seeing the number is only useful if it changes what you do. Three things actually help:

• Switch models before you run out, not after. Lighter models draw far less from your allowance. Using the most capable model for routine work is the most common way people burn a session early.
• Start fresh conversations for new topics. Every message re-sends the conversation so far, so a very long thread costs more per message than a short one. Our guide to making your Claude tokens last covers this in detail.
• Know when your window resets. If your session resets in twenty minutes, the answer is often to wait rather than to upgrade. See when Claude usage resets.

If you are consistently hitting weekly caps rather than session windows, that is a genuine signal your plan is too small, and worth reading up on before paying more: Claude Pro vs Max compares the tiers honestly.

Frequently asked questions