Show HN: AI Meter – Local token usage with energy and water estimates

Show HN: AI Meter – Local token usage with energy and water estimates(ai-meter.app)

2 points by zeko1195 28 days ago | 2 comments

[Problem] I wanted to track how many tokens I am burning and it's estimated energy and water impact.

[WHAT THIS IS] A local token usage tracker that works across different coding harnesses and estimates energy and water impact

[MY EXPERIENCE] Tracking this really put things into perspective. My personal usage is close to 1 MWh in the past three months which I had no idea about. This does not include my AI usage at work which is probably 10x.

[DEMO] If you are interested in tracking these numbers locally, try out: https://ai-meter.app

- It reads historical data if the files are present. Works completely locally (except to check if there is an update for the widget) - No login. No analytics. No tracking.

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[On estimates]

AI Meter measures tokens from local AI coding-tool logs, then estimates:

Electricity: tokens ÷ 1M × 0.39 kWh, calibrated from Oviedo et al.’s production-scale inference model.

Direct cooling water: electricity ÷ 1.20 PUE × 0.45 L/IT-kWh, using LBNL’s U.S. data-center WUE scenario.

These are adjustable estimates, not provider measurements. They exclude training, hardware manufacturing, electricity-generation water, and local-device energy.

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Hope you find this interesting! Please feel free to give feedback, would love to make this better!

FreeGuessr 28 days ago |

It’s an interesting idea, but once I measure it, what would I actually do with that information?

I’m not sure whether the site already has this, but a global aggregate would be interesting - especially if everyone could contribute their measurements and compare results. Like much we waste as a population.

Also, is the project open source?

zeko1195 28 days ago | |

It is source available not open source. I’m down to open sourcing it!

For me the value add is - a clearer impact of my own AI usage. Also it’s fun to track my own trends :) I could see my codex usage go up and Claude usage down recently (personally love both)

Yes, the global aggregation is definitely on the table and will be very interesting. I want it to be strictly opt in. Will launch this very soon :) your help is appreciated if you can contribute!