SkillKeeper vs the built-in /usage command

If you only need your limit and a rough split of the last day or week, /usage is enough and it is free. A separate monitor is worth it when you want longer history, every source in one list, or the numbers without opening a session.

We make SkillKeeper. What follows about /usage is from the Claude Code cost docs, checked on 2026-10-14.

What /usage shows

• A session block with input, output and cache tokens per model and a dollar estimate at list price. It resets on /clear.
• Plan usage bars on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise: how much of your session and weekly limits is used.
• Attribution. Recent usage split between skills, subagents, plugins and individual MCP servers, as a share of the total. Press d or w to switch between the last 24 hours and the last 7 days.
• Behavior flags for long context or cache misses, shown when one of them is 10% or more of recent usage.
• Loops. The heaviest scheduled tasks, with how often they ran.

The figures are approximate and computed from session history on the machine you run it on.

What a separate monitor adds

	/usage	SkillKeeper
How you open it	Run the command inside a session	Click the menu bar icon
Windows	Last 24 hours, last 7 days	5 hours, 24 hours, week, month
Sources	Skills, subagents, plugins, MCP servers	Those, plus tools, commands, memory files and sessions as their own lists
Alerts	Limit messages when you hit one	Bell warnings before the limit runs out, a long session, an agent spike
Other tools	Claude Code	Codex and Gemini CLI by skill and session
Acting on it	Read-only	Edit triggers, pause or archive skills
Price	Included	Last 5 hours and 24 hours free; $19 once for the rest

The practical difference is not the numbers for the last day, which both show. It is the longer window, the memory files and sessions as lists you can sort, and the fact that you do not have to start a session to look.

When /usage is enough

• You want the official limit and reset time.
• A 24-hour or 7-day split answers your question.
• You do not want another app.

When to add a monitor

• You want to compare this week with last month.
• You want to find which CLAUDE.md or memory file is expensive on every request.
• You want a warning before the limit, not a message after it.
• You want to fix what you find: shorten a description, pause a skill that never runs.

Both together

Use /usage for the authoritative limit and a monitor for the picture over time. How to check Claude Code token usage covers the other commands, /context and the status line. The Mac app is on the monitor page.

Checked on 2026-10-14. Claude Code changes between versions; if something here is out of date, tell us.