Show HN: AI Meter – Local token usage with energy and water estimates
AI Meter is a local macOS app that tracks token usage from coding agents and estimates electricity and water consumption, with a focus on privacy and no data leaving your device.
Private by default
Measure your AI usage. Locally.
AI Meter measures token usage across your local coding agents and estimates the associated electricity and direct cooling-water use. No accounts. No usage data leaves your Mac.
Download for macOS ↓View on GitHub ↗
INSTALL FROM TERMINAL
$ curl -fsSL https://ai-meter.app/install.sh | sh
●Reads local provider files. The only network request is a public update check.
THE ACTUAL APPMACOS · LOCAL ONLY
TRANSPARENT ESTIMATION
From measured tokens to estimated impact.
AI Meter follows a SCI for AI-aligned consumer boundary. These are local scenarios based on published research—not measurements from OpenAI, Anthropic, or their data centers.
01 / USAGE#
Provider-reported tokens
Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, and Gemini CLI token counts are read from local records, deduplicated, and combined on your Mac.
02 / ELECTRICITY⚡
Tokens ÷ 1M × 0.39 kWh
The default inference factor is 0.39 facility kWh per million tokens, with an indicative 0.20–0.75 kWh uncertainty range.
03 / WATER◒
Energy ÷ PUE × WUE
Direct cooling water uses a 1.20 PUE and 0.45 L per IT kWh site WUE. Both assumptions are adjustable inside AI Meter.
What is excluded: model training, embodied hardware, off-site electricity water, grid carbon, networking, and user-device energy.
Read the full methodology ↗