Now on VS Code Marketplace→

Count your tokens.
Like beads on an abacus.

Every token counts — monitor budgets, optimize context, and cut AI costs before they add up. A VS Code extension, MCP server, and CLI that makes the invisible visible.

Learn MoreStar on GitHub
VS CodeVS CodeCursorCursorSoonClaude CodeClaude CodeMCP
ext install tokalator
@tokalator
Tokalator token budget dashboard in VS Code — LOW budget, next turn preview, budget breakdown

Quick Start

  1. 1Install from the VS Code Marketplace or run `ext install tokalator`
  2. 2Click the Tokalator icon in the Activity Bar — the sidebar dashboard opens
  3. 3Type `@tokalator /count` in Copilot or Claude Chat to see your token budget
  4. 4Pin important files with `/pin` so they always stay in context
  5. 5Run `/optimize` to get a full health report on your context window

Under the hood

Tokenizers
Claude BPE (Anthropic), o200k_base (OpenAI), heuristic (Gemini)
Models
17 profiles — Claude 4.x, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 Mini, GPT-5.x Codex, GPT-4.1, o3, o4-mini, Gemini 3.x, Gemini 2.5
Caching
Prompt caching (Anthropic 90%), automatic (OpenAI 50%), context caching (Google 75%)
Scoring
Relevance from 0 to 1 based on imports, language, path similarity, recency, and diagnostics
MCP & CLI
count_tokens, estimate_budget, preview_turn, list_models — works in Claude Code via stdio MCP or as a standalone terminal CLI

All Commands

Available through @tokalator in VS Code Chat.

/count

Show current token count and budget status

/breakdown

Show where your tokens are going

/optimize

Close low-relevance tabs to free up tokens

/pin

Pin a file so it's always included

/unpin

Unpin a file so it returns to normal relevance scoring

/instructions

List, count, and estimate tokens for instruction files in workspace

/model

Show or switch the active AI model

/compaction

Show per-turn token growth and compaction recommendations

/preview

Preview token cost of your next message before sending

/reset

Reset session state (chat turn counter)

/exit

End the current session and save summary

View on GitHub →

Beyond VS Code

Token budget awareness wherever you work — not just in the editor.

1

MCP Server for Claude Code

Real Claude BPE token counting inside Claude Code via stdio MCP transport. Count tokens, estimate file budgets, preview turn cost — zero API calls.

claude mcp add --transport stdio tokalator -- node tokalator-mcp/build/index.js
MCP
2

Standalone CLI

Terminal-first token budgeting for SSH sessions, containers, and non-VS Code workflows. Run tokalator count, budget, preview, or models anywhere.

npm install -g tokalator
CLI

Every token you save
makes the next prompt better.

Open source. Community shaped. Free forever.

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