Plain-English writing on AI API spend, subscription value, and how teams keep getting cooked. No vendor hype, no hand-waving, real numbers.
The honest comparison: ccusage, Claude-Code-Usage-Monitor, the official /usage command, and CookedAF. What each one actually tells you — and why Anthropic still can't break down cost per user.
$1.3M in a month. A$25k from a forgotten key. $82k in 48 hours. Five named, sourced incidents — what actually happened, the exact dollar figures, and the single guardrail that would have stopped each one.
Read the case files →Subscription vs. API economics in 2026. The 5-hour and weekly limits explained, when each Claude plan actually makes sense, and why the Indie Hackers "$30,983 on a $200/mo plan" thread isn't a one-off.
Read the breakdown →