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Use case

Keep an eye on your Claude and Codex plan limits while you work

Pairbar is a macOS app that shows how much of your Claude and Codex plan limits you've used, as two rings in the header of its sidebar. Each ring shows the tighter of the 5-hour and weekly windows, turns orange at 50% and red at 80%, and opens a card with every window and its reset time. Pairbar also uses those numbers to suggest which app to start a chat in and to skip scheduled work when a plan is running low. With only one of the apps you get that app's ring alone; see tracking Claude Code usage limits.

Last updated

42%Claude68%CodexOrange from 50%, red from 80%:whichever window is fuller.ClaudeCurrent session (5-hour)resets 16:40Weekly, all modelsresets Mon 09:00Codex5-hour windowresets 15:10Weekly windowresets Thu
The Claude and Codex rings in the sidebar header, with the limits card open: the 5-hour session window and the weekly windows, each with its reset time.

The problem

Subscription plans for Claude Code and Codex come with usage limits that reset on rolling windows, typically a short session window and a weekly one (see Anthropic's and OpenAI's pages for the current details of your plan). If you use both tools, you're tracking at least two sets of windows in two places. The usual way to find out you're close is hitting the limit in the middle of a task.

That matters most when you run things in parallel or on a schedule: a nightly job can quietly spend the budget you wanted for tomorrow morning.

How Pairbar solves it

  1. Look at the rings
    The sidebar header has one ring for Claude and one for Codex. Each shows how much of the plan's tightest limit is used right now: whichever of the 5-hour and weekly windows is fuller. Orange from 50%, red from 80%.
  2. Hover or click for the limits card
    Claude: the current session (5-hour) window, the weekly window for all models, and the weekly window for specific models, each with its reset time. Codex: each of its windows, with reset times and your plan.
  3. Install live status for Claude
    Settings → Integrations → Live status for Claude → Install… also runs Claude Code's status line through Pairbar's helper, so Claude hands Pairbar its 5-hour and weekly percentages and Pairbar needn't start claude to read them. Your own status line, if you have one, looks exactly the same. Otherwise the numbers come from the Claude app's own record of the 5-hour window, and claude -p /usage only as a last resort.
  4. Let the limits steer new work
    Open the composer with ✎. A green dot marks the suggested app, and ⓘ shows how much of each plan is left and why that app was picked.

Where the numbers come from

ClaudeCodex
SourceClaude Code's status line (set up by Install of live status for Claude), then the Claude app's own 5-hour record; claude -p /usage only when neither has anything from the last 6 hoursthe newest rate-limit report in Codex's local session files
How oftena reading counts as current for 15 minutes (a minute when you open the card); /usage at most every 15 minutesas fresh as the latest report Codex has written
Costno chat turn, costs nothing; normally Pairbar starts no claude at allnothing: it's a local file
Your settingsPairbar never undoes or edits what Claude changes in its own settingsnot touched

What else uses the limits

  • The Claude-or-Codex suggestion weighs limit headroom, where you've worked in this project recently, and a typical chat's share of the limit. An app without enough left for a typical chat isn't suggested. Settings → Chats & sidebar → Start new chats in can make it always Claude or always Codex instead.
  • Skip under N% on a workflow skips a scheduled run when less than that share of the plan's tightest limit is left (20% by default). The run shows as skipped with the reason, for example "Only 9% of Codex's limit left". Run now skips the limit check; required startup answers must still be supplied.
  • Limits are checked before every step of a workflow, not only the first. With Use the other app when a plan runs low on, a step moves to the other app instead of being skipped.
  • The workflow planner's Plan with chip defaults to the app with more of its limit left, and puts heavier steps on that app.
  • A workflow's health flags three or more runs skipped for plan limits.

Without Pairbar

You can check each plan's usage without Pairbar; it just takes a visit per app:

  • Claude: the usage page in Claude's settings, or /usage inside a Claude Code session.
  • Codex: the usage details the Codex app and CLI show for your ChatGPT plan (see OpenAI's Codex docs).
  • A status line: Claude Code can show a custom status line in the terminal, which some people script to print usage; it covers Claude only and only while that terminal is open.

Frequently asked questions

Can starting claude change my Claude settings?
Pairbar leaves that to your own Claude. A new Claude Code version updates ~/.claude/settings.json once, the first time any claude starts (for example opus becomes opus[1m]). Before Pairbar would start claude -p /usage, it checks whether that claude would make this update; if so, it doesn't start it, keeps the last reading and says the limits update once you've used Claude Code. Pairbar never puts back or edits anything Claude changes in its settings. See Claude's settings stay yours.
Does checking Claude's limits use up my plan?
No. Normally Pairbar starts no claude at all: the numbers come from Claude Code's status line, which one-click Install of live status for Claude sets up, or from the Claude app's own record. Only when neither has anything from the last 6 hours does it run claude -p /usage, which uses no chat turn and costs nothing, at most every 15 minutes. See Where the numbers come from.
Why does the ring show a different number from the 5-hour window?
The ring shows the tightest limit: whichever of the 5-hour and weekly windows is fuller. The limits card shows each window separately.
What if I don't have the claude command-line tool?
The 5-hour window still comes from the Claude app's own record when you use the Claude app. Without claude and without any reading, the card says so and links to install it.
Can a scheduled workflow use up my limit?
Only if you let it. Skip under N% (20% by default) skips scheduled runs when the plan is low, and limits are checked before every step.

Related

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