Ollama usage
Ollama token counter in the Mac menu bar
Local models do not bill you, so there is no invoice to check, but that does not mean you stop being curious how much you are actually running through Ollama in a given day. That usage lives in local logs, and reading them by hand means opening a terminal, finding the right log file, and doing the counting yourself instead of just looking at a number. Without a bill to check, the only way to know is to look at what actually happened on your Mac, and Ollama does not surface that on its own.
A token counter for the menu bar turns that log-reading into a glance: how many tokens you have run today, and how that compares to the rolling seven days, sitting next to whatever hosted providers you are also tracking. You stop context-switching to a terminal just to answer a question a menu bar item could answer on its own.
How Usage HUD shows it
Usage HUD reads your local Ollama logs and reports exact token counts for today and the rolling seven days, not an estimate. Because Ollama is a local model with no external usage endpoint to check against, Usage HUD is direct about that in the confidence label rather than borrowing the certainty language it uses for a hosted provider’s official reading.
The Ollama bar sits next to Claude, Codex, Gemini, and Grok if you use them, each with its own reset time, freshness stamp, and confidence label. Turn any bar off without losing its history. Everything is read on your Mac, with no Usage HUD account and no telemetry from the app, so your local model activity never leaves the machine it ran on. That distinction only matters because Ollama runs entirely on your Mac, with no external usage endpoint the way a hosted provider has, so Usage HUD treats the two differently instead of dressing up a log count as an official reading.
Buy Usage HUD
$9 USD · one time · personal license through 1.x
Launch price through 30 Sep 2026, then $15. 14-day refund by email. If CodexBar already works for you, you do not need this.
Frequently asked questions
Are the Ollama token counts estimated?
No. Usage HUD reads your local Ollama logs and reports exact token counts for today and the rolling seven days.
Does this send my local model activity anywhere?
No. Usage HUD reads the logs on your Mac and does not send them anywhere. The app has no telemetry and there is no Usage HUD account.
Can I use this if Ollama is my only provider?
Yes. Turn off any provider bar you do not use and keep just the Ollama counter in the panel.
Related
Ollama sits alongside every other provider Usage HUD reads. See the CodexBar alternative page if you track more than one provider, or Gemini CLI and Grok usage for two more. Visit the Usage HUD home page to see every provider bar, or watch the demo video there.