Compatibility
Updated 16 September 2026. This page is the live list. Where anything else on the site disagrees with it, this one is right.
What works, what does not, and what we will do when the grifters move the goalposts. This page is the technical truth. If something is not listed here, assume it is not supported yet.
The short version
Griftmeter™ is a small round display that shows how much of your AI subscription you have burned through. A helper program (the "listener") runs on your computer, reads your usage from the provider, and feeds the number to the device over USB. Wi-Fi is optional. It counts everything you have running at once, not one window at a time.
AI providers
| Provider | Plans | Status | How we read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude (Anthropic) | Pro, Max | Yes | Your account usage, session and weekly windows. Read from the Claude desktop app's own usage record (Windows, including the Microsoft Store version, macOS and Linux), or from the login Claude Code keeps on your computer. The desktop app has to be open now and then for its record to move; leave it closed for hours and the dial says so instead of guessing. |
| Claude Code | Pro, Max | Yes | Reads the usage Claude Code hands over on every turn. Works alongside the above. Only the terminal version drives it; the VS Code and JetBrains chat panels do not. |
| Anthropic API (pay as you go) | n/a | Not supported | Metered billing has no percentage to show, because there is no ceiling to be a percentage of. A spend dial is a different product; tell us if you want one. |
| OpenAI Codex | ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business | Yes | Read from the endpoint the Codex CLI itself calls. Codex draws on the same five-hour and weekly windows as the rest of the ChatGPT plan, so this is one number for the whole allowance rather than a Codex-only figure. |
| GitHub Copilot | Individual, Business, Enterprise | Yes | Your monthly premium-request quota, with its real reset date. The window is monthly rather than five-hourly, so this one reports a period figure and no session number. We will not invent one. |
| Cursor | Pro, Pro+, Ultra, Teams | Yes | Reads the same “Included Usage” figure the Cursor dashboard shows, with the real cycle end. Cursor bills under its own plan, so no other dial can see it, and the model you pick inside Cursor makes no difference. Monthly again, so a period figure and no session number. Verified on the free Hobby plan; paid plans report the same fields. |
| Claude Team, Enterprise | n/a | Untested | They may well work, since they read the same account usage as Pro and Max. Nobody has tried it on a real seat, so we are not going to claim it. Tell us if you have one and we will find out together. |
| ChatGPT without Codex | n/a | Not supported | The number above comes from the Codex endpoint. Without Codex installed there is nothing to read. |
| Others | n/a | Ask | Adding a provider is a small plug-in on the listener side. |
You need an active subscription. Griftmeter does not give you usage data, buy you credits, or bypass a limit. It reads what your provider already tells you and puts it on your desk where you cannot ignore it.
Running more than one session at a time
This is where the meter earns its place on your desk.
Nobody runs one chat any more. You have an agent refactoring in one terminal, another one grinding through tests, a browser tab where you are arguing with the same model about architecture, and your editor quietly autocompleting all day. Every one of those is spending from the same bucket, and not one of them can see the others.
So you get the classic ambush: four windows all reporting that things are fine, right up until the limit lands mid-task and everything stops at once. Checking a usage page in a browser tab does not help, because by the time you think to check, you have already spent it.
Griftmeter shows the total. One number, the real one, already adding up everything every session is burning – because it reads your account, not any single window. It sits in your peripheral vision and you never have to go looking for it. You watch the arc move while the agents work, and you notice the expensive run while it is still running instead of reading about it in an error message.
Fan out five agents and watch the dial climb in real time. It is genuinely useful and, we will admit, a little bit horrifying.
Operating systems
| OS | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Yes | Developed and tested here. x64 and arm64 builds. Your user needs permission
to use serial devices; on most distributions that means being in the
dialout group. |
| macOS | Yes | Intel and Apple Silicon, as a dmg. Reads credentials from the Keychain when Claude stored them there; macOS will ask permission the first time. The app is not notarized yet, so on first launch right-click it and choose Open. |
| Windows | Yes | Windows 10 and 11, as a normal installer. It installs for your user only and needs no admin rights. It is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns once; More info, then Run anyway. The device appears as a COM port and needs no driver. |
The listener is a single self-contained program. Nothing else to install, no Node, no Python. Phones and tablets cannot run it. A Raspberry Pi with a 64-bit OS, or any always-on box, works well if you would rather not leave a laptop running.
Connections
| Link | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| USB | Yes recommended |
Plug it in and it works. Carries power, the readings, settings and firmware updates. Use the supplied USB-A to USB-C cable, or another A-to-C data cable. A USB-C to USB-C cable will not work – the module has no USB-C power negotiation, so a C-to-C host never offers it power and the device stays dark. Charge-only A-to-C cables will power it but carry no data. |
| Wi-Fi | Yes optional |
2.4 GHz only. The radio in this chip cannot see 5 GHz networks. For placing the device away from the computer. The computer running the listener still has to be on and reachable. |
Networks that will not work with Wi-Fi: guest networks with client isolation, captive portals (hotels, cafes, campuses), and enterprise networks requiring a login. This is why USB is the recommended path and why Wi-Fi is configured over the cable rather than a setup hotspot.
Hardware
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Display | 1.3 inch round color IPS |
| Input | Capacitive touch, tap and swipe |
| Processor | ESP32-C3 with Wi-Fi |
| Power | 5 V, about 500 mA, over USB-A to USB-C. No battery. C-to-C will not power it. |
| Shells | Printable. Themes on the device match the fitted shell. |
Firmware updates
The settings page has a Check for updates button. Updates are downloaded from this site, checked against our signature and a checksum, and installed over the cable. If a signature does not verify, nothing is installed.
We do not lock the hardware. The chip's own bootloader is left alone, so a determined owner can put whatever they like on a device they paid for. What we sign is what comes from us – so nobody else can push firmware to your device and call it Griftmeter.
Privacy
Your usage numbers go from your computer to a display on your desk. They do not come to us. We have no account system, no telemetry, and no interest in your prompts – we never see them. The listener talks to your AI provider and to your device, and to this site only when you ask it to check for a firmware update. Diagnostic logs stay on your machine unless you choose to send one in, and secrets are stripped out of them before they are written.
Known limitations
- The computer running the listener must be awake. Sleep it and the number freezes; the device says so rather than pretending.
- The dial is fed every 30 seconds, but the account figure behind it is fetched at most every five minutes, dropping to every minute once you are close to a limit. So the number can trail reality by a few minutes when you are nowhere near the cap, and by about a minute when it matters. Providers also update their own numbers on their own schedule.
- Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz only.
- Several devices on one computer work. Each one keeps its own face, snark setting and provider, so a dial on your desk and a dial on the shelf can show different things.
- We read what the provider publishes. If they round it, we round it too.
If the grifters pull up the ladder
Let us be honest about the thing this whole product balances on: we read usage through channels the AI companies control, and they did not build those channels for us. They could close them at any point, quietly, in a routine update nobody announced. That is the deal when you build on someone else's platform, and we went in with our eyes open.
So here is our promise. If a provider cuts off the data, we will not leave you holding a paperweight. We will ship an update. If there is another honest way to get the number, we will find it and use it. If there is not, the device gets a new job, because a nice round screen on your desk is still a nice round screen. We have a list, and it runs from useful to stupid:
- Coffees in. One tap per cup. The dial fills. No judgement, just arithmetic, and the arithmetic is the judgement.
- Time until payday. A countdown that gets more honest the longer you look at it.
- A clock. Built, and on your dial now. Swipe past the providers and it is the last page. Analog or digital, wearing whichever shell is fitted, and it keeps running if the listener goes away.
- Focus timer. Twenty five minutes, then a small snarky remark about your break.
- Whatever you ask for. Tell us and we will probably build it, especially if it is funny.
You bought hardware. It stays yours, it stays useful, and the firmware stays updatable. That is the whole point of not locking the bootloader.
Something not working?
The settings page has a Download log button under System. It collects what we need to help – your operating system, versions, device status and recent errors, with credentials stripped out. Send it to [email protected] and we will take a look.
Last reviewed: 10 September 2026. Firmware 0.5.21, listener 0.1.44.