nowfound

AI · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Context Budget Planner

Calculate LLM tokens & costs before you send

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    See your LLM token bill before you hit send.

    2025 · tokenomy.ai · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Hey HN! Tokencost is a utility library for estimating LLM costs. There are hundreds of different models now, and they all have their own pricing schemes. It’s difficult to keep up with the pricing changes, and it’s even more difficult to estimate how much your prompts and completions will cost until you see the bill. Tokencost works by counting the number of tokens in prompt and completion messages and multiplying that number by the corresponding model cost. Under the hood, it’s really just a simple cost dictionary and some utility functions for getting the prices right. It also accounts for…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Count tokens and estimate costs for any AI model

    2024 · tokencounter.co · its alternatives →

  4. 4
    CalPal▲105

    I built this using React/Next.js. The parsing logic uses [library/custom regex]. Added Gemini API support so users can generate budget templates dynamically. No ads, just a tool.

    Jan 2026 · trycalpal.app · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    LLMs price comparison tool developed and updated by LLM

    2024 · ailesson.io · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    We built an open-source proxy that sits between coding agents (Claude Code, OpenClaw, etc.) and the LLM, compressing tool outputs before they enter the context window. Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vFZ6MPrwjw#t=9s. Motivation: Agents are terrible at managing context. A single file read or grep can dump thousands of tokens into the window, most of it noise. This isn't just expensive — it actively degrades quality. Long-context benchmarks consistently show steep accuracy drops as context grows (OpenAI's GPT-5.4 eval goes from 97.2% at 32k to 36.6% at 1M…

    Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    Tokenwise▲143

    A smart LLM proxy that shows where you're overpaying

    Jun 2026 · tokenwisehq.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Easily calculate the token count and cost of your GPT Prompt.

    2023 · gptcalculator.xyz · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Live pricing for 309+ AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, DeepSeek) plus real-world cost calculators: chatbots, API budgets, and token math. Updated 2026-09-06.

    Aug 2026 · costperprompt.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on called Frugal Tokens. I originally built it because I was curious to see how much all of my sessions cost and how much cache misses affected that spend. I’d noticed people had widely different spend profiles and wanted to better understand what might contribute to that. As I’ve worked on this, the tool has grown to show more usage patterns across all of your sessions. It shows overall usage, estimated working time and overlapping sessions, and where your spend is coming from across models and cache misses. I also have a few session level…

    Aug 2026 · demo.frugaltokens.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Track LLM usage, costs & tokens with real-time insights.

    2025 · affordai.io · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Every number behind your AI prompt. Free, no signup.

    Apr 2026 · ai-token-counter-wheat.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    I code on Claude's pay as you go API and started budgeting my token usage with my own CLI wrapper. Basically I set a budget for a task that I'm working on in my project: Task: "Fix mobile responsiveness" Budget: $3.00 and the budget updates after each prompt: Task: "Fix mobile responsiveness" Budget: $2.34 / $3.00 78% It helps keep an eye on my spending when working on projects.

    May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I built a small Chrome extension for people who write long conversations in Claude and don’t want to unexpectedly hit the 200,000-token limit. Context Compass automatically counts words and estimates token usage as you write. It updates in real time, gives you a visible percentage bar, and helps power users manage sprawling chats without losing work or flow. I built it because I kept getting the “max context” error and realized there was no way to track usage in Claude. No signups, no tracking, just a simple install. Would love any feedback or ideas for improvements. Thanks!

    2025 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    I built this after hitting the same wall repeatedly — no good way to enforce token budgets in application code. Provider caps are account-level and tell you what happened, not what is happening. Two ways to add it: # Direct client wrapper client = tokencap.wrap(anthropic.Anthropic(), limit=50_000) # LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, etc. tokencap.patch(limit=50_000) Four actions at configurable thresholds: WARN, DEGRADE (transparent model swap), BLOCK, and WEBHOOK. SQLite out of the box, Redis for multi-agent setups. One design decision worth mentioning: tokencap tracks tokens, not dollars. Token…

    Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    The Privacy-First Expense Tracker. No Bank Login Required.

    Jul 2026 · spendkeep.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Most devs using AI coding tools don't even imagine how much information they put in the context window - tools, MCPs, tool responses, active skills - all of which take up some real estate. Sometimes updating a tool description or trimming api response can give significant savings - and profiler helps to measure that

    Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    AI cost calculator — compare GPT-5, Claude & Gemini pricing

    Aug 2026 · llmeconomics.app · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Hi HN, I was once given the advice: Don't waste expensive frontier model credits (GPT/Claude/etc.) on bulk work. Send the boring, repetitive, high-volume jobs to a smaller model, and save the expensive prompts for when you actually need frontier-level reasoning. I complained and told my manager that I shouldnt have to think about using certain models for certain coding tasks, and that one model should handle everything. Well, here we are anyway. If anyone needs a place to absolutely abuse an LLM with high-volume tasks, come beat ours up at https://yolo-auto.com. Here are…

    Jul 2026 · yolo-auto.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20
    Bursora▲26

    Cap your AI spend before the bill lands

    Jul 2026 · bursora.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Stop runaway LLM API spend before it happens

    Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    See how much Claude you have left before you hit the wall

    May 2026 · tokenmonitor.app · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Calculate LLM API call costs right from the menubar

    2025 · aicostbar.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Track AI rate limits & token usage in real time — free

    Jun 2026 · its alternatives →

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →