MCP Token Cost Tracker

Track token usage and costs for MCP servers in AI coding tools

What It Does

Scans your MCP (Model Context Protocol) configurations and estimates how many tokens are being loaded into your AI coding tool's context window. Helps you:

See which MCP servers are consuming the most tokens
Estimate monthly costs based on usage
Get recommendations for optimization

Supported Tools

Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json)
Claude Code (~/.claude.json)
Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp_config.json)
Windsurf (~/.windsurf/mcp.json)

Installation

# Clone or download
cd mcp-token-tracker

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run
pnpm dev

Usage

# Scan for MCP configs and analyze token usage (fast estimates)
pnpm dev

# Connect to servers for real token counts (slower but accurate)
npx tsx src/cli.ts scan --live

# Or after building:
pnpm build
pnpm start scan
pnpm start scan --live

Example Output

🔍 MCP Token Cost Tracker

Scanning for MCP configurations...
✓ Found 1 configuration(s)

📁 Claude Desktop
   /Users/you/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Servers:
  ✓ playwright                      1,232 tokens ($0.0025/session)
  ✓ context7                        1,278 tokens ($0.0026/session)
  ✓ servicecurator                  1,236 tokens ($0.0025/session)

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Total: 3,746 tokens (~3.7k)
  Est. Monthly Cost: $0.22

✓ Token usage looks good!

How It Works

Scans known MCP config file locations
Estimates token usage based on server configuration
Calculates approximate monthly costs
Recommends optimizations if usage is high

Why This Matters

Every MCP server you load adds tool definitions to your AI's context window. With 5-10 servers, you could be burning 4,000+ tokens on tools you're not even using. This tool helps you:

Identify which servers are worth keeping loaded
Unload unused servers to save tokens (and money)
Optimize your MCP configuration

Tech Stack

TypeScript - Type-safe CLI
Commander.js - CLI framework
Chalk - Terminal colors
Tiktoken - Token counting (OpenAI's official library)

Usage Tracking (Claude Code)

When used in a Claude Code project, MCP tool calls are automatically logged. The scan output shows which servers you actually use:

Servers:
  ✓ playwright         (22 tools)     3,769 tokens    12 calls (2h ago)
  ✓ context7           (2 tools)        995 tokens     8 calls (1d ago)
  ⚠ MCP_DOCKER         (43 tools)    10,220 tokens     0 calls (never)

Servers with 0 calls get a warning icon, making it easy to identify candidates for removal.

Setup: Copy .claude/settings.json and .claude/hooks/ to your Claude Code project to enable tracking.

Roadmap

Connect to actual MCP servers via JSON-RPC (--live flag)
Track real tool usage via Claude Code hooks
Historical tracking (see usage over time)
Auto-optimize config files
Web dashboard

License

MIT

Author

Elizabeth Stein

MCP Token Tracker

README