Claude usage limits on your Mac, in the notch

Updated 28 September 2026.

The usual way to find out your Claude session is over is halfway through a request. The number was there all along — in Claude’s settings, under Usage — but nobody opens Settings in the middle of work to check it.

Dynamic Notch puts that number in the MacBook notch, where it is visible without looking for it. This page explains what it shows, where the figures come from, what it cannot do, and when a dedicated menu bar tracker is the better choice.

The two limits Claude counts

• The session. A window of a few hours that starts with your first message and resets on its own. This is the one you usually run into.
• The week. A longer allowance on top of the session. It matters less day to day, until a heavy week makes it the tighter of the two.

Both come as a percentage used and a time they reset. How big they are depends on your plan; the notch shows whatever Claude itself shows for your account.

What you see in the notch

• A ring next to the gear. Open the notch and it shows how much of the session you have used. Hover it to see the week as well.
• A card under the closed notch, only while Claude is the app in front and its numbers are current: the percentage and the time it resets. Switch to another app and it steps aside.
• Colour first. Orange past 75%, red past 95%. At a glance you know whether to start a long request or wait.
• The number that matters. It shows the session, unless the week has passed 75% and is the closer of the two to running out.

When a limit resets

If you ran out, the notch says so when you can start again: a card reading “Claude is back”, within a minute of the reset. It stays silent if the other limit is still in the way — a session that is back is no use with the week spent.

When Claude Code finishes, or needs you

Leave Claude Code on a long task and get on with something else. Two alerts bring you back:

• “Claude is done” when the task finishes, with the name of the project folder. It stays quiet if Claude is already the app in front, so it does not pop up after every reply you are watching.
• “Claude needs you” when it stops for a permission or a question, so a prompt no longer waits unseen in another window.

They work wherever Claude Code runs: the terminal, an IDE, or the Code tab of the Claude desktop app. They use Claude Code’s own hooks. You switch them on from the app’s Settings, which copies a short message for Claude Code; paste it and Claude Code adds the hooks to its settings itself. Dynamic Notch never edits Claude’s files.

ChatGPT and Codex

The same ring and card work for Codex, in the ChatGPT app or the codex command, with its session and weekly limits. Plain ChatGPT chat has no usage meter anywhere, so there is nothing to show for it. The notch shows one of the two at a time: the one whose app is in front, or else the last one you used.

The done and waiting alerts work with Codex too. Codex asks you to approve a new hook once, with /hooks; until you do, it skips it without saying anything.

Where the numbers come from

No password, no session cookie, no API key and no request to Anthropic. The Claude desktop app downloads your usage figures for its own Usage panel and keeps them on your Mac; Dynamic Notch reads them, and only reads them. For Codex it reads the limit lines in the session files the ChatGPT app writes, and nothing else in them. Nothing is sent anywhere. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

That choice has a cost, and it is better said plainly:

• The Claude desktop app has to be installed and in use. If you only use Claude in the browser, or only Claude Code in the terminal, there are no Claude numbers to read. The Claude Code alerts still work.
• With the desktop app closed, the numbers stop moving. After twenty minutes without an update the card no longer presents them as current.
• Codex numbers update when you use Codex, because that is when they are written.

Dynamic Notch or a dedicated tracker?

There are several menu bar apps that do only this, and some are free and open source. The conflict of interest first: this page is on our site. So here is when they are the better pick.

• You do not use the Claude desktop app. Most dedicated trackers ask for your claude.ai session or a token and query the usage directly, so they work without it.
• You want only a usage meter, free, or with more detail than a session and a week.

And when Dynamic Notch is:

• You would rather not hand a session cookie or token to another app. Nothing here signs in as you.
• You use both Claude and Codex and want them in the same place.
• You want the done and waiting alerts from Claude Code and Codex, not just the percentage.
• You would use the rest of the notch anyway: file tray, clipboard history that refuses passwords, calendar, focus timer, voice memos, media and a browser video that moves into the notch. The usage meter comes with them, for €14.99 once.

Requirements

macOS 14 or later, on any Mac: on a MacBook the panel hides in the notch, on a Mac without one it draws a shape of the same size at the top of the screen. Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Seven days free with no account, no email and no card, then €14.99 once.

Try Dynamic Notch, 7 days free See it on the home page

Claude is a trademark of Anthropic and ChatGPT of OpenAI. Dynamic Notch is not affiliated with either. More guides: Mac notch apps compared.